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Take your vitamins with a pinch of RNA
Robert A Weisberg1, Gisela Storz
1Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Molecular Cell
|December 31, 2002
Abstract:
RNA "aptamers" capable of binding and discriminating among structurally related small molecules can be concocted in the laboratory. Two groups have now discovered that conserved domains in the 5' ends of some mRNAs bind specific metabolites and respond by changing their shape in biologically useful ways, demonstrating that aptamers also are present in the natural world.