APE1 as a Novel Mammalian Endoribonuclease

生命系统中最基本的活动之一是将它们的遗传信息(DNA)复制到蛋白质中，蛋白质是执行维持有机体存活的大部分生物功能的分子机器。将DNA复制到蛋白质中分两步进行：第一步，将DNA复制到信使核糖核酸(信使核糖核酸，化学上类似于DNA)中；第二步，将信使核糖核酸用作制造特定蛋白质的模板。因此，蛋白质的数量取决于mRNAs的数量。由于信使核糖核酸丰度的变化而导致的许多蛋白质的过剩或不足可能导致疾病，如癌症。MRNAs的丰度在很大程度上取决于其降解的速度。因此，了解mRNA降解机制是如何工作的，对于增加我们对分子生物学的基本科学知识以及揭示一些人类疾病的发病机制是重要的。

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.