Unzippers, resolvers and sensors: a structural and functional biochemistry tale of RNA helicases.

ABSTRACT: The centrality of RNA within the biological world is an irrefutable fact that currently attracts increasing attention from the scientific community. The panoply of functional RNAs requires the existence of specific biological caretakers, RNA helicases, devoted to maintain the proper folding of those molecules, resolving unstable structures. However, evolution has taken advantage of the specific position and characteristics of RNA helicases to develop new functions for these proteins, which are at the interface of the basic processes for transference of information from DNA to proteins. RNA helicases are involved in many biologically relevant processes, not only as RNA chaperones, but also as signal transducers, scaffolds of molecular complexes, and regulatory elements. Structural biology s

SUBMITTER: Leitao AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4346836 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature