A newly published paper from researchers at Yale University
looks at the process of splicing RNA at the atomic level,
establishing RNA’s chemical and structural complexity and
showing that it is capable of recruiting diverse metals and
orienting them to work with RNA. Scientists at Yale University
have described in the greatest detail yet aspects of the
chemical processes by which RNA carries out the expression of
our genes. In a paper published Oct. 26 in the journal Cell,
researchers report 14 crystal structures for a group II intron —
an enzyme involved in RNA splicing, a critical phase of genetic
reproduction. These new views capture the enzyme’s working parts
and multiple steps in its operation, revealing the chemical
mechanisms at work. “We didn’t just get a snapshot — we caught
the intron in action,” said principal investigator Anna Pyle,
the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Molecular, Cellular and
Developmental Biology and professor of chemistry at Yale. A
major function of RNA is copying all genet