title: The road to RNase P.
abstract: In 1989, Sidney Altman and Thomas R. Cech shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA. Cech was studying the splicing of RNA in a unicellular organism called Tetrahymena thermophila. He found that the precursor RNA could splice in vitro in the absence of proteins. Altman studied ribonuclease P (RNase P), a ribonucleoprotein that is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of tRNA. RNase P is an RNA processing endonuclease that specifically cleaves precursors of tRNA, releasing 5' precursor sequences and mature tRNAs. RNase P is involved in processing all species of tRNA and is present in all cells and organelles that carry out tRNA synthesis. What follows is a personal recollection by Altman of how he came to study this remarkable enzyme.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, Kline Biology Tower, 219 Prospect Street, New Haven, Conneticut 06520-8103, USA. sidney. altman@yale.edu.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Altman
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004722:Endoribonucleases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D043262:Ribonuclease P
chemical_list: D016337:RNA, Catalytic; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D004722:Endoribonucleases; D043262:Ribonuclease P