The Ribonucleic Acids (PDF)

The central role of the ribonucleic acids (RNA) in mediating the expression of information encoded in DNA in living cells is now well established. Research in this area of biology continues at a remarkable rate, and new and significant information appears almost daily in a wide range of journals, published symposia and specialist reviews. The scattered nature of this information makes it difficult for the newcomer to the field of ribonucleic acid biochemistry to obtain a general oversight of current activity and new advances. Moreover, the reviews available for the most part are concerned with rather insular aspects of these ubiquitous molecules, or in the case of text-books, the subject is treated as part of a general out­ line of properties of nucleic acids and thus often tends to be­ superficial. With these considerations in mind, a postgraduate course was instituted in the university in Canberra to attempt to provide a comprehensive, though not excessively detailed, outline of the biological roles of RNA. The course was designed for students with a sound undergraduate training in biochemistry, but other­ wise with a wide variety of biological interests-plant physiology, virology, organelle biochemistry, genetics. The chapters in this book represent the matter of that course.