Keeping RNases poised for action

A better knowledge of RNA metabolism is key to understanding how RNAs regulate development and differentiation, and how their malfunction leads to disease. A team led by Helge Grosshans of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) has now identified a novel and evolutionarily conserved mechanism that preserves the stability of RNases and keeps them poised for RNA processing and degradation. The results have been published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. For many decades, scientists thought that RNA functions merely as an intermediary between DNA and proteins. However, it has now become evident that RNA occurs in many flavors in the cell, allowing it to perform diverse and important functions. In addition to serving as a photocopy of DNA, a coupler between the genetic code and protein building blocks, and a structural component of ribosomes (the protein-producing machines), RNAs also directly regulate gene activity during development and differentiation. Accordingly, RNA malfunction has been implicated in numerous diseases, and research into RNA metabolism - the processes whereby RNA is formed, processed and degraded - has gained momentum.