Science

When the Central Dogma is not enough – microbial small RNAs

Posted on by charlie

Centraldogma_nodetails One thing that has always bugged me was a sort of pendatic repetition of what's called the Central Dogma of molecular biology – that DNA goes to RNA goes to protein.

What bothered me was that it way oversimplified the complexity of information transfer and control in organisms. And for me, the excitement has been in all the exceptions to this Dogma.

For example, I had a sort of Rip van Winkle gap between when I left science to when I re-engaged years later (missed the deep stuff, while keeping up lightly with the superficial stuff). Back in 1999 we were talking about some weird things going on in nematodes, where you could control gene expression simply by adding some small RNAs to cells. Fast forward to 2006 and I find out that these small RNAs have been found everywhere as a control mechanism.

Now mix that with the resurgence of microbiology (or at least it looks like a resurgence to me) and folks are starting to use small RNAs as a way to read gene expression patterns in micro-organisms. The idea is that it's a quick readout before the organism starts responding to the effects of collection and removal from its native environment.

"If we think of marine bacteria and their proteins as tiny factories performing essential biogeochemical activities — such as harvesting sunlight to create oxygen and synthesize sugar from carbon dioxide — then the sRNAs are the internal switches that turn on and off the factories' production line. Their discovery in the ocean samples opens the way to learning even more detailed information in the lab: the researchers can now conduct lab experiments to look at the effects of environmental perturbation on microbial communities. These new sRNAs also expand our general knowledge of the nature and diversity of these recently recognized regulatory switches." [apologies to the person I got the link of, as I have forgotten who it was] 

Cool.

Image from wikipedia

charlie

3 Comments

  1. Charlie,
    siRNA’s are only the beginning. Riboswitches, long noncoding RNAs,… there is much more to come. When your mentor first entered science, RNA was for information – only. After his PhD we started learning that RNA could be catalytic – splicing, etc. But again, there is more to come!
    Craig

  3. Craig,
    Thanks for the comment.
    I suppose you’ve been reading my site and know that we are moving soon
    back to Boston.
    https://www.molecularist.com/lifeblog/2009/03/leaving-nokia.html
    I have an offer from Children’s Hospital to do some online marketing
    for their philanthropy arm (I am awaiting the official offer). I’d
    rather be at the bench, but I am sure it’ll be a fun job. The key
    thing, it’s a main motivator to move our butts back.
    Of course, I’ll have to do a trip out west to see you all.
    I hope all is well there. I am sure the kids are keeping you on your toes.
    Cheers to LMT,
    Tchau,
    Charlie

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