RNA in evolution
RNA in evolution
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/wrna.37
复制
发表时间：
2010-09-01
影响因子：
7.3
通讯作者：
Lehman, Niles
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lehman, Niles
RNA在地球生命的进化史中扮演了各种角色。虽然这种分子曾经被认为是细胞中更有影响力的聚合物（即DNA和蛋白质）的穷表亲，但过去50年来的一系列重要发现表明，RNA实际上可能是生物功能的基石。特别是，RNA可以是催化剂，因此具有基因型和表型，这一发现迫使我们考虑生命起源始于RNA的可能性，随后的生命多样化被恰当地描述为RNA适应不断变化的环境的一系列创新。其中一些适应包括核糖开关，核糖核蛋白（RNP），RNA编辑和RNA干扰（RNAi）。虽然这些功能中的许多乍一看似乎是最近的进化发展，但它们所有的催化活性可能都可以追溯到大约40亿年前的原始“RNA世界”，并且RNA的多样性有一条连续的线索，从其起源开始就贯穿于生命。(C)2010 John Wiley & Sons，Ltd. WIREs RNA 2010 1 202-213
RNA has played a variety of roles in the evolutionary history of life on the Earth. While this molecule was once considered a poor cousin of the more influential polymers in the cell, namely DNA and proteins, a string of important discoveries over the last 50 years has revealed that RNA may in fact be the cornerstone of biological function. In particular, the finding that RNA can be catalytic, and thus possess both a genotype and a phenotype, has forced us to consider the possibility that life's origins began with RNA, and that the subsequent diversification of life is aptly described as a string of innovations by RNA to adapt to a changing environment. Some of these adaptations include riboswitches, ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), RNA editing, and RNA interference (RNAi). Although many of these functions may seem at first glance to be recent evolutionary developments, it may be the case that all of their catalytic activities trace their roots back to a primordial 'RNA World' some four billion years ago, and that RNA's diversity has a continuous thread that pervades life from its very origins. (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs RNA 2010 1 202-213