Concept
RNA splicing
Related concepts (23)
Riboswitch
In molecular biology, a riboswitch is a regulatory segment of a messenger RNA molecule that binds a small molecule, resulting in a change in production of the proteins encoded by the mRNA. Thus, an mRNA that contains a riboswitch is directly involved in regulating its own activity, in response to the concentrations of its effector molecule. The discovery that modern organisms use RNA to bind small molecules, and discriminate against closely related analogs, expanded the known natural capabilities of RNA beyond its ability to code for proteins, catalyze reactions, or to bind other RNA or protein macromolecules.
Peptide nucleic acid
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an artificially synthesized polymer similar to DNA or RNA. Synthetic peptide nucleic acid oligomers have been used in recent years in molecular biology procedures, diagnostic assays, and antisense therapies. Due to their higher binding strength, it is not necessary to design long PNA oligomers for use in these roles, which usually require oligonucleotide probes of 20–25 bases. The main concern of the length of the PNA-oligomers is to guarantee the specificity.
Transcription factories
Transcription factories, in genetics describe the discrete sites where transcription occurs in the cell nucleus, and are an example of a biomolecular condensate. They were first discovered in 1993 and have been found to have structures analogous to replication factories, sites where replication also occurs in discrete sites. The factories contain an RNA polymerase (active or inactive) and the necessary transcription factors (activators and repressors) for transcription.