Rna Biology - An Introduction

The first-ever advanced text on RNA biology captures all the excitement of this booming field. Divided into three parts, on coding RNA, non-coding RNA, and RNomics, both the traditional roles of RNA in the transmission and regulation of genetic information and the newly discovered functions of small RNA species in pathogen defense, cell differentiation and higher-level genomic regulation are competently explained and put into perspective.

Gunter Meister is the head of the department of biochemistry I of the University of Regensburg, Germany. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry, working on RNA-protein complexes. Thereafter, he joined the group of Tom Tuschl at the Rockefeller University in New York (USA), where he worked on RNA interference and small non-coding RNAs. After his postdoctoral time in New York, he went back to the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry as independent group leader and head of the ?RNA Biology? group. Gunter Meister has received an EMBO long-term fellowship as well as an Emmy Noether fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. He was awarded the Max-Planck junior research award as well as the research award of the Engelhorn foundation.

Introduction
PART 1: mRNA BIOLOGY
Transcription of pre-mRNAs
Capping of the pre-mRNA 5? end
3? end processing of pre-mRNAs
Splicing of eukaryotic pre-mRNAs
mRNA export from the nucleus to the cytoplasm
Translation
Deadenylation of the mRNA
mRNA decapping
mRNA decay pathways
mRNA quality control
PART 2: NON-CODING RNA BIOLOGY
Ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and the biogenesis of ribosomes
Transfer RNAs (tRNAs)
The 7SL RNA and the signal recognition particle
Regulation of transcription: the 7SK small nuclear RNA
Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs)
Spliceosomal small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs)
Small non-coding RNAs and the mechanism of gene silencing
Long non-coding RNAs
RNA editing
Ribozymes ? catalytic RNA molecules
Riboswitches and RNA sensors
RNomics
APPENDIX
Answers to questions