APE1 as a Novel Mammalian Endoribonuclease

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One of the most fundamental activities in living systems is to copy their genetic information (DNA) into proteins, the molecular machines that carry out most of the biological functions that keep an organism alive. The copying of DNA into proteins occurs in two steps: first, DNA is copied into mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid; chemically similar to DNA); second, mRNA is used as a template to make specific proteins. The amount of proteins is therefore dependent on the amount of mRNAs. An excess or shortage of many proteins due to changes in the abundance of mRNA can lead to diseases, such as cancer. The abundance of mRNAs is highly dependent on the rate of its degradation. An understanding of how the mRNA degradation machinery works is therefore important for increasing our basic scientific knowledge of molecular biology, as well as for revealing information on the pathogenesis of some human diseases.