Metals and RNA: scenes from a road trip
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1253, USA
- Corresponding author: derose{at}uoregon.edu
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
About twenty years ago, I began working with ribozymes as an Assistant Professor trained in the world of metalloproteins. In retrospect, moving to the RNA world was a naïve but brilliant move. Naïve, because I had little idea of the complexities and challenges inherent to ribozyme studies. Brilliant, for personal career satisfaction, because I've been present for amazing discoveries in RNA biology over two decades.
In establishing independent careers, Assistant Professors in Chemistry are expected to make a distinct shift in areas. In 1995, I had graduate and postdoctoral training in structure-function of protein metalloenzymes; rather than switching protein targets, I switched biomolecules. Ribozymes were in discovery, were fascinating, and needed Mg2+ for function. Naïvely simple questions were unanswered: How many metals contributed to activity? How were they captured, what were their RNA binding sites and affinities? How similar were ribozymes, in active-site structure and mechanism, to protein-based polymerases …
