Yale Researchers Find New RNA Structures 90
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ScuttleMonkey
from the micro-steps-for-mankind dept.
from the micro-steps-for-mankind dept.
Science Daily is reporting that researchers from Yale have discovered "very large RNA structures within previously unstudied bacteria that appear crucial to basic biological functions such as helping viruses infect cells or allowing genes to 'jump' to different parts of the chromosome." Ronald Breaker, professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale, stated that this would be equivalent to protein scientists finding a whole new class of enzymes. "The Breaker laboratory has used the explosion of DNA sequence information and new computer programs to discover six of the top twelve largest bacterial RNAs just in the last several years. One of the newly discovered RNAs, called GOLLD, is the third largest and most complex RNA discovered to date, and appears to be used by viruses that infect bacteria. Another large RNA revealed in the study, called HEARO, has a genetic structure that suggests it is part of a type of 'jumping gene' that can move to new locations in the bacterial chromosome."
Re:Yale Evolution and Behaviour Lectures (Score:1, Informative)
You do realize that a lot of glaciers and polar caps are melting? [google.ca]. Oceans, being composed of fluids more viscous than the atmosphere, don't exchange heat as well as the atmosphere.
Re:From the original Nature article... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Curious choice of analogies (Score:5, Informative)
The first thing that people have to overcome when studying evolution is the notion that evolution somehow works towards some sort of perfection. Evolution just as often, or more often, creates "good enough" solutions, and is often highly conservative once such solutions are found. While RNA is a far less efficient and even stable molecule than DNA, that says nothing as to its potential aka the RNA world hypothesis. RNA might not be the best moleculr out there (heck, DNA probably isn't either), but at some stage, it was good enough.