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Book publication : January 2019
RNA Worlds: New Tools for Deep Exploration. eds. T.R. Cech, J.A. Steitz, J.F. Atkins. 559 pages. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
The contents of individual chapters to be published in the journal “Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives”.
RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules drive much of cellular action. Messenger RNA (mRNA) relays genetic information from DNA to ribosomes to direct the formation of proteins. At the same time, noncoding RNAs act as enzymes, scaffolds, and regulatory molecules contributing greatly to the regulation of gene activity, RNA splicing, protein synthesis, and even DNA replication.
This book focuses on emerging tools for analysis of RNA biology and how these tools are driving our understanding of RNA structure and function. The contributors review new approaches for imaging RNA molecules in cells, techniques for analyzing the behavior of single RNA molecules in vitro and in vivo, transcriptome-wide analyses, and novel methods for determining the structure of RNA and RNP (ribonucleoprotein) complexes. They discuss the insights they provide into the transcription and splicing machinery, ribosomes, reverse transcriptases, and subcellular structures such as stress granules.
Also included are chapters exploring CRISPR editing, RNA switches for use in synthetic biology, and development of novel drugs targeting pathogenic RNA structures. In addition, the book covers recent insights into the primordial RNA World including protocells and homochirality.
This is the 5th edition of the RNA Worlds series of books. In 1993 the first edition was published and in 2011 the fourth (RNA Worlds: From Life’s Origins to Diversity in Gene Regulation. eds J.F. Atkins, R.F. Gesteland, T.R. Cech) followed. All have had one editor with an Irish address, and for nearly all this has been UCC (Biochemistry/Microbiology, Departments/Schools). In the series to date 23 separate contributions have had an author who at the time of publication or by the end of 2018, who had received a Nobel prize.
Table of Contents for the newly published book below:
