小分子RNA大新闻.docVIP

SMALL RNA: BIG NEWS小分子RNA：大新闻 1/10/05. 05年1月10日。 By Richard Twyman到理查德特怀曼 Are genes the only interesting bits of the human genome? 是基因的人类基因组中唯一有趣的位？ Protein-coding genes have hogged our attention, but now tiny RNAs are where the action is. 蛋白质编码基因有hogged我们的注意，但现在微小RNA是那里的行动。 Scientists studying the human genome have always focused on the genes that encode proteins.科学家研究人类基因组编码蛋白质的基因，始终专注于。 This is because proteins are required for nearly every conceivable biological process.这是因为几乎每一个可以想象的生物过程所需的蛋白质。 So we often tend to think of the genome as a kind of human component list.因此，我们常常认为作为一种人性化“组件列表”的基因组。 Indeed, protein-coding genes are in the majority, accounting for more than 99 per cent of the known genes in the genome.事实上，蛋白质编码基因中的大多数，占超过99％的基因组中的已知基因。 These genes are first transcribed, or copied, to produce a messenger RNA (mRNA) of analogous sequence, and the mRNA is then translated to make the protein.首先，这些基因是转录或复制，产生类似序列的信使核糖核酸（mRNA），的mRNA，然后翻译成蛋白质。 Remarkably, however, protein-coding genes account for only 1.5 per cent of the human genome – but the remaining 98.5 per cent of the DNA is not merely junk.但值得注意的是，，蛋白质编码只有1.5％，占人类基因组基因 - ，但其余98.5％的DNA的百分之不仅仅是垃圾。 In among it are further genes that are copied into RNA but are not intended to make proteins.在这当中，有进一步的基因被复制成RNA，但不打算制造蛋白质。 This small contingent produces the so-called non-coding RNAs; they represent about 1 per cent of known human genes, but more are being found rapidly.这个小队伍产生所谓的非编码RNA，它们代表约1％％的已知的人类基因，但更多的是迅速找到。 Many of these RNA molecules have been known about for some time, such as ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules (see The new RNA world box).许多这些RNA分子已了解了一段时间，如核糖体RNA（rRNA基因）和转运RNA（tRNA）分子（见“新的RNA世界”框）。 More recently, it has become clear that lurking quietly in the genome are genes that produce much smaller non-coding RNAs.最近，它已经很清楚，静静地潜伏在基因组中产生小得多的非编码RNA的基因。 The number of small RNA genes is unknown, but hundreds have been discovered in the last two years and the final numb