A new era for the RNA world. Conference: RNA 2000.

Abstract

The RNA Society was established in 1993 to facilitate sharing and dissemination of experimental results and emerging concepts in RNA research. The Society encompasses RNA research in the broadest sense: from the ribosome to the spliceosome, from RNA viruses to catalytic RNAs. It is a multidisciplinary society representing molecular, evolutionary and structural biology, biochemistry, biomedical sciences, chemistry, genetics and virology, as they relate to questions of the structure and function of RNA and of ribonucleoprotein assemblies. The annual meeting of the RNA Society, which has more than 800 members, was held from May 30 to June 4 in Madison, WI. Understanding the decoding of genetic information and its translation into polypeptides by the ribosome has posed one of the great challenges in molecular biology. Recent years have witnessed a tremendous acceleration in the elucidation of the structure of the ribosome to the point where central insights into ribosome function are becoming apparent. Unquestionably, highlights of ‘RNA 2000’ included reports on the high resolution X‐ray structures of the 50S and 30S subunits from Thermus thermophilus and cryo‐EM work on the 70S ribosome of Escherichia coli . While the small 30S subunit accommodates the mRNA decoding center (the ‘brain of the ribosome’ in A. Yonath's words), the 50S subunit harbors the ‘heart’, the peptidyl transferase center (PTC). T. Steitz's and P. Moore's groups (New Haven, CT) reported structural data for the 50S subunit at 2.4 A resolution, which reveal the singular most breathtaking finding: the apparent lack of any proteins within at least 20 A of the PTC (Ban et al ., 2000). ‘The ribosome is a ribozyme’, as P. Nissen (New Haven, CT) summarized it, to emphasize that the catalytic function of peptide bond formation seems to be catalyzed by elements of the rRNA. His presentation, which focused on the description of …