Bachellerie J P, Cavaillé J
Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire Eucaryote du CNRS, Université Paul-Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Trends Biochem Sci. 1997 Jul;22(7):257-61. doi: 10.1016/s0968-0004(97)01057-8.
Eukaryotic rRNAs contain a complex set of ribose-methylated nucleotides. Why are these nucleotides modified and how are they selected? A large family of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) with long complementarities to sites of rRNA methylation has been recently found to guide such modifications, opening up a direct approach to the study of their elusive function. Ribose methylation can also be targeted to non-rRNA sequences by tailored snoRNA guides, possibly providing a highly selective tool for altering gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.
真核生物的核糖体RNA（rRNA）含有一组复杂的核糖甲基化核苷酸。这些核苷酸为何会被修饰以及如何被选择？最近发现了一大类与rRNA甲基化位点具有长互补性的小核仁RNA（snoRNA），它们可指导此类修饰，为研究其难以捉摸的功能开辟了一条直接途径。通过定制的snoRNA引导序列，核糖甲基化也可以靶向非rRNA序列，这可能为在转录后水平改变基因表达提供一种高度选择性的工具。
