RNA Research Reveals New Roles For decades, RNA (ribonucleic
acid), was thought to play a supporting role to its more famous
counterpart, DNA. After all, protein production requires DNA-
based genetic information to be converted to transient RNA
molecules, which cells use as blueprints to build the proteins,
in a process that relegates RNA to its subsidiary reputation.
More recently, scientists have come to realize the range of RNA
functions is much broader than as mere middle men in protein
production. Indeed, RNA also mediates chemical reactions and
regulates cellular processes. Now, articles in the Sept. 2 issue
of the journal Science provide a rich resource for scientists to
study the diversity and function of a special class of RNAs and
demonstrate yet another role for the mysterious molecule beyond
protein production. In one, a group at the University of
Delaware used a new technique to identify more than 77,000 so-
called "small RNAs" from the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana,
and created a publicly acc