Molecular evolution of RNA-polypeptide complexes

introduction of rna virus evolution

lots of viruses, in particular rna viruses, have high mutation rates and relatively short generation times. particle stability during infection in nature or in laboratory triggers the evolutionary event toward different mechanisms such as genome segmentation, point mutation and  recombination. the frequency of mutant genomes increase and modify  the previous distribution, which, consequently, l...

Syntheses of Cross-Linking Agents, Molecular Modeling of Oligonucleotides and Polypeptide-Ion Complexes

Molecular Evolution: The Perplexing Diversity of Mitochondrial RNA Editing Systems

New analysis of rapidly evolving mitochondrial genomes in calcaronean sponges has demonstrated that accurate gene expression requires systematic nucleotide insertion throughout RNA transcripts, altering previous views that RNA editing systems are difficult to maintain in genomes with high mutation rates.

Crystallization of RNA and RNA-protein complexes.

RNA plays a direct role in a variety of cellular activities, and in many cases its biological function is conferred by the RNA three-dimensional structure. X-ray crystallography is the method of choice for determining high resolution structures of large RNA molecules, and can also be used to compare related RNAs and identify conformational changes that may accompany biochemical activity. Howeve...

Molecular evolution of dinoflagellate luciferases, enzymes with three catalytic domains in a single polypeptide.

Enzymes with multiple catalytic sites are rare, and their evolutionary significance remains to be established. This study of luciferases from seven dinoflagellate species examines the previously undescribed evolution of such proteins. All these enzymes have the same unique structure: three homologous domains, each with catalytic activity, preceded by an N-terminal region of unknown function. Bo...