New Scientist
Image: AJC ajcann.wordpress.com
Move over DNA, its RNA’s time to shine. A revolutionary RNA-editing tool promises to transform our understanding of RNA’s role in our growth and development, and provide a new avenue for treating infectious diseases and cancer.
RNA was once thought to be a mere middleman, carrying genetic messages from the DNA in the nucleus out to cellular structures called ribosomes, where it directs the production of proteins. In recent decades we have learned that it does much more, from controlling what form a protein will take to influencing whether a particular gene is able to generate a protein.
In other words, although we might think that we are governed by our DNA, it is really RNA that pulls the strings. So people are understandably keen to develop tools to study, track and even manipulate RNA inside living cells.
In 2013, a team led by Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard – and another team working independently – figured out how to manipulate a genetic bacterial immune system that can identify and attack an invading pathogen by snipping up sections of its DNA. This CRISPR-Cas system from the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes is now being used to target and cut up DNA sequences – including those in human cells.
Now Zhang’s team has discovered another version of the CRISPR-Cas system in a bacterium called Leptotrichia shahii. Only this one, called C2c2, selectively cuts up RNA. Read more on newscientist.com…
