RNA Chemistry

For decades, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was considered the carrier of information between our genes and the gene products, the proteins. Transfer RNA (tRNA) was long known as a supplier of the individual protein building blocks—the amino acids—to the sites of protein biosynthesis, the ribosomes. The process of gene expression was deemed understood in principle, whereby RNA played a rather subordinate role. Moreover, working with RNA entailed a certain degree of uncertainty due to its instability. Hence, this class of substances generated little interest—at least among classical molecular biologists.

This changed fundamentally when it was discovered that RNA—as a ribozyme—is capable of catalytic activity and that the vast majority of our transcriptome (the part of the gene expressed in RNA) does not contain the information required for the construction of proteins but rather must perform other functions. These can be regulatory controls or even functions that are still completely unknown to us today.

Thus, RNA chemistry—also known as RNA biochemistry or RNA biology—has expanded in recent years. The Department of Chemistry investigates the regulation of translation on the RNA level and the relationships between structure and function during translation by the ribosome—a ribozyme composed of more than 60% RNA.