Chemical & Engineering News
New findings indicate that transfer RNA (tRNA) has another function in addition to its long-established role in gene expression. tRNA also helps control apoptosis, or programmed cell death, according to a team of researchers led by University of Pennsylvania cancer biologist Xiaolu Yang (Mol. Cell 2010, 37, 668).
During gene expression, DNA is first transcribed into messenger RNA. Next, tRNA moleculeseach carrying an amino acid as cargobind to successive nucleotides in the messenger RNA. A ribosome links these amino acids together to form a protein, and the unloaded tRNAs are subsequently released... read more