Giegé Richard
Département Machineries Traductionnelles, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2008 Oct;15(10):1007-14. doi: 10.1038/nsmb.1498. Epub 2008 Oct 6.
Transfer RNAs are ancient molecules present in all domains of life. In addition to translating the genetic code into protein and defining the second genetic code together with aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, tRNAs act in many other cellular functions. Robust phenomenological observations on the role of tRNAs in translation, together with massive sequence and crystallographic data, have led to a deeper physicochemical understanding of tRNA architecture, dynamics and identity. In vitro studies complemented by cell biology data already indicate how tRNA behaves in cellular environments, in particular in higher Eukarya. From an opposite approach, reverse evolution considerations suggest how tRNAs emerged as simplified structures from the RNA world. This perspective discusses what basic questions remain unanswered, how these answers can be obtained and how a more rational understanding of the function and dysfunction of tRNA can have applications in medicine and biotechnology.
转运RNA是存在于所有生命领域的古老分子。除了将遗传密码翻译成蛋白质并与氨酰-tRNA合成酶共同定义第二遗传密码外，tRNA还参与许多其他细胞功能。关于tRNA在翻译中作用的有力现象学观察，以及大量的序列和晶体学数据，使人们对tRNA的结构、动力学和身份有了更深入的物理化学理解。由细胞生物学数据补充的体外研究已经表明了tRNA在细胞环境中的行为方式，特别是在高等真核生物中。从相反的角度来看，反向进化的思考表明tRNA是如何从RNA世界中作为简化结构出现的。这一观点讨论了哪些基本问题仍未得到解答，如何获得这些答案，以及如何对tRNA的功能和功能障碍有更合理的理解并将其应用于医学和生物技术领域。
