Molecular Machine Turns Packaged Messenger RNA Into A Linear Transcript
Friday, February 13, 2009 - 12:35
in Physics & Chemistry
For RNA, the gateway to a productive life outside the nucleus is the nuclear pore complex, an amalgamation of 30 kinds of proteins that regulates all traffic passing through the nuclear membrane. New research shows that one of these proteins magnetically couples with a special molecule -- a helicase -- to form a machine that unpacks balled-up messenger RNA particles so that they can be translated.