Post-transcriptional modifications are very important after all

RNA Biol. 2014;11(12):1481-2. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2014.1005439.

JD Alfonzo 

In the beginning there was RNA and our lives as molecular biologists and biochemists proceeded simply. All one needed to know, to explain all things nucleic acid, were 4 canonical nucleotides: G, A, C and U. Then, magic happened!

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Post-transcriptional RNA Modifications: playing metabolic games in a cell's chemical Legoland

Chem Biol 2014 Feb 20;21(2):174-85. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2013.10.015. Epub 2013 Dec 5

Post-transcriptional RNA Modifications: playing metabolic games in a cell's chemical Legoland.

Helm M¹, Alfonzo JD².

Abstract

Nature combines existing biochemical building blocks, at times with subtlety of purpose. RNA modifications are a prime example of this, where standard RNA nucleosides are decorated with chemical groups and building blocks that we recall from our basic biochemistry lectures. The result: a wealth of chemical diversity whose full biological relevance has remained elusive despite being public knowledge for some time. Here, we highlight several modifications that, because of their chemical intricacy, rely on seemingly unrelated pathways to provide cofactors for their synthesis. Besides their immediate role in affecting RNA function, modifications may act as sensors and transducers of information that connect a cell's metabolic state to its translational output, carefully orchestrating a delicate balance between metabolic rate and protein synthesis at a system's level. 

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