Rna

[Orleander]

I see so much news about DNA. Is RNA the red headed step child of science or what? I never hear a thing about it.
Does it not do a dang thing??

[draqon]

RNA is just one strand of DNA...in essence

[Orleander]

what? That's it? well.....I guess it really is a red haired stepchild. Who knew! oh wait, probably everyone but me, huh.
LOL

[draqon]

what? That's it? well.....I guess it really is a red haired stepchild. Who knew! oh wait, probably everyone but me, huh.
LOL

boldly going nowhere but to friday night hangout...

[Oli]

SAM knows this stuff: but check
http://www.ncc.gmu.edu/dna/rna.htm

Different functions.

[nietzschefan]

when I see RNA I just think oh viruses...boring.

[invert_nexus]

RNA is just one strand of DNA...in essence

That is just so wrong.
RNA is a completely different animal.

Wait 'til Hercules sees this.
He'll throw a conniption fit.

I see so much news about DNA. Is RNA the red headed step child of science or what? I never hear a thing about it.
Does it not do a dang thing??

Yikes.
RNA is the rage, right now.
Ever hear of microRNA?
RNAi?
Epigenetics?

DNA is boring. RNA is being shown to be behind more and more cell functions.

[Orleander]

....
RNA is the rage, right now.
Ever hear of microRNA?
RNAi?
Epigenetics?...

Lord love a duck! If I had, do you think I'd be asking?? What are they??

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Uggghhh!!!! My God !!!!! I’m so flabbergasted that I can hardly type.

Is no one aware of the central dogma of biology???????

DNA --> RNA --> protein

RNA is as essential to the functioning of cells/tissues/organisms as any other biological molecule you can name. RNA is the blueprint for making proteins. It is essential for ribosomal function. It is essential for bringing free amino acids to ribosomes for polypeptide assembly. And recently RNA has been shown to play fundamental roles in gene regulation and development. Last year the Nobel Prize for Med/Phys was awarded for research into an aspect of RNA function.

Wait 'til Hercules sees this. He'll throw a conniption fit.

Too late.

[Repo Man]

Retroviruses (such as HIV) also made RNA more popularly known.

[CharonZ]

What Hercules said. I'd also add a reverse from RNA to DNA to account for RT-reactions. Though I probably just do it to confuse students .

[Scull]

Hey- viruses are exciting little bugs, especially ebola!

And it is possible to have double stranded RNA (dsRNA). Other differences are that RNA utilizes ribose instead of deoxyribose as it sugar and the nucliotide uracil is used.

[GeoffP]

Yeah, RNA is a copy of intron DNA material. Big deal in bio these days.

[Scull]

Not necessarily. Many viruses only have RNA.

I would argue that DNA 'evolved' from RNA.

[Orleander]

so does RNA do good things or is it mainly a virus thing?

[pilpaX]

little reading doesn´t hurt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rna

[Scull]

Who says viruses are bad?

But as mentioned earlier, RNA is used to produce proteins humans need, which would definantly make it good.

[Idle Mind]

so does RNA do good things or is it mainly a virus thing?

RNA is essential for a cell to survive. Without it, no proteins would be synthesized. It is at least as important as DNA.

[Orleander]

so why can't we trace it like DNA? Is everyone's the same?

[spuriousmonkey]

There is also rather an extensive field that looks into the function of small RNAs that are not translated but do have a regulatory capacity. This field is rather big and I am not to knowledgeable about it and hence I cannot from memory recite all the different classes of small RNAs that I am referring too and how they work in general.

They do exist though.

RNA is not just an intermediate between DNA and protein.

Oh wait, there is a short paragraph on it in the link pilpax gave. Doesn't give much info but it is a start.