RNA

In Caenorhabditis elegans, antiviral RNA interference (RNAi) relies on the coordinated activity of Dicer (DCR-1), the helicase DRH-1, and the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-binding protein, RDE-4, yet the domain-specific contributions of RDE-4 remain unclear. Here, we reconstituted the antiviral complex from independently purified DCR-1•DRH-1 and RDE-4 to define how RDE-4...

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in gene regulation. One potential regulation mechanism involves the formation of RNA•DNA:DNA triplexes. In these triplexes, the lncRNA binds in the major groove of a target DNA via Hoogsteen base pair formation. Here, we investigated the impact of the underlying RNA binding on the stability of the DNA duplex target to gain insights...

Tristetraprolin (TTP)/ZFP36 is an RNA binding protein that is involved in the turnover regulation of the target adenylate-uridylate-rich RNA element (ARE)-containing mRNAs. AREs are present in the 3'-untranslated region of transcripts expressed from many immediate-early genes, including cytokines and chemokines. It has been demonstrated that TTP-mediated posttranscriptional m...

Telomere length governs replicative capacity and cellular fate. In most cancers, telomeres are maintained by telomerase, a holoenzyme comprising an RNA component (hTR), a protein component (hTERT), and associated accessory proteins. hTR contains two major domains with distinct primary interactions: a 5' domain that associates with hTERT, and a 3' domain that binds core H/ACA ...

Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious human pathogen that must replicate inside macrophage to cause disease. The ribosomes of F. tularensis can incorporate one of three different paralogs for the small ribosomal subunit protein bS21. One of these paralogs positively impacts translation of key virulence genes and promotes intramacrophage replication. Alth...