With both catalytic and genetic functions, ribonucleic acid (RNA) is perhaps the most
pluripotent chemical species in molecular biology, and its functions are intimately linked to …

This review aims at juxtaposing common versus distinct structural and functional strategies
that are applied by aptamers, riboswitches, and ribozymes/DNAzymes. Focusing on recently …

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) accomplish a remarkable variety of biological functions. They
regulate gene expression at the levels of transcription, RNA processing, and translation …

The general notion of an “RNA world” is that, in the early development of life on the Earth,
genetic continuity was assured by the replication of RNA, and RNA molecules were the chief …

R-loops are ubiquitous, dynamic nucleic-acid structures that play fundamental roles in DNA
replication and repair, chromatin and transcription regulation, as well as telomere …

Synthetic chemistry has traditionally relied on reactions between reactants of high chemical
potential and transformations that proceed energetically downhill to either a global or local …

The general notion of an “RNA World” is that, in the early development of life on the Earth,
genetic continuity was assured by the replication of RNA and genetically encoded proteins …

The complexity of even the simplest known life forms makes efforts to synthesize living cells
from inanimate components seem like a daunting task. However, recent progress toward the …

A critical event in the origin of life is thought to have been the emergence of an RNA
molecule capable of replicating a primordial RNA “genome.” Here we describe the evolution …

Mechanisms of molecular self-replication have the potential to shed light on the origins of
life. In particular, self-replication through RNA-catalysed templated RNA synthesis is thought …