Abstract
The studies of the Nobel laureate in Chemistry S. Altman changed the established scientific idea about RNA solely as a carrier of genetic information. Altman discovered the catalytic properties of RNA, which provided new opportunities for the development of genetic engineering, biochemistry, and medicine and played a key role in constructing a modern theory of the origin of life on Earth. He created a worldfamous laboratory at Yale University, where he and his colleagues studied the structure and properties of RNase P and RNA catalysis mechanisms. Scientists from different countries have participated in the work of this laboratory on study of post-transcriptional processing of RNA and have considered the possibilities of constructing a new type of gene-directed agents based on catalytic RNA for biomedical purposes. In the framework of the competition of megagrants of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Ministry of Education in 2013, S. Altman received a grant, thanks to which under his leadership the Russian–American Laboratory of Biomedical Chemistry was formed at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. The laboratory is a consortium of young scientists working on solving interdisciplinary problems in the field of nucleic acid chemistry, biophysics, and microbiology. Laboratory staff have obtained unique analogs of oligonucleotides, which opens up new opportunities for creating modern therapeutic drugs and materials for diagnosis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. D. Watson and F. N. Crick, “Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid,” Nature 171, 737–738 (1953).
T. R. Cech, “The chemistry of self-splicing RNA and RNA enzyme,” Science 236, 1532–1539 (1987).
S. Altman, “Ribonuclease P: An enzyme with a catalytic RNA subunit,” Adv. Enzymol. Relat. Areas Mol. Biol. 62, 1–36 (1989).
J. D. Robertus, J. E. Ladner, J. T. Finch, et al., “Structure of yeast phenylalanine tRNA at 3 A resolution,” Nature 250, 546–551 (1974).
J. N. Abelson, M. L. Gefter, L. Barnett, et al., “Mutant tyrosine transfer ribonucleic acids,” J. Mol. Biol. 47 (1), 15–28 (1970).
R. L. Russell, J. N. Abelson, A. Landy, et al., “Duplicate genes for tyrosine transfer RNA in Escherichia coli,” J. Mol. Biol. 47 (1), 1–13 (1970).
S. Altman, “Isolation of tyrosine tRNA precursor molecules,” Nat. New Biol. 229 (1), 19–21 (1971).
C. Guerrier-Takada, K. Gardiner, T. Marsh, N. Pace, and S. Altman, “The RNA moiety of ribonuclease P is the catalytic subunit of the enzyme,” Cell 35, 849–857 (1983).
J. E. Darnell and W. F. Doolittle, “Speculations on the early course of evolution,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 83 (5), 1271–1275 (1986).
F. H. Westheimer, “Polyribonucleic acids as enzymes,” Nature 319 (6054), 534–535 (1986).
A. M. Weiner and N. Maizels, “tRNA-like structures tag the 3' ends of genomic RNA molecules for replication: Implications for the origin of protein synthesis,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 84 (21), 7383–7387 (1987).
G. F. Joyce, “RNA evolution and the origins of life,” Nature 338, 217–224 (1989).
F. H. Crick, “The origin of the genetic code,” J. Mol. Biol. 38 (3), 367–379 (1968).
L. E. Orgel, “Evolution of the genetic apparatus,” J. Mol. Biol. 38 (3), 381–393 (1968).
R. Kole and S. Altman, “Properties of purified ribonuclease P from Escherichia coli,” Biochemistry 20 (7), 1902–1906 (1981).
R. E. Reed, M. F. Baer, C. Guerrier-Takada, H. Donis-Keller, and S. Altman, “Nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the RNA subunit (M1 RNA) of ribonuclease P from Escherichia coli,” Cell 30 (2), 627–636 (1982).
Y. Xiao, J. Zhang, B. Zheng, et al., “Changes in Chinese policies to promote the rational use of antibiotics,” PLOS Med. 10 (11), e1001556 (2013).
S. S. Terekhov, I. V. Smirnov, A. V. Stepanova, et al., “Microfluidic droplet platform for ultrahigh-throughput single-cell screening of biodiversity,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 114 (10), 2550–2555 (2017).
D. G. Knorre, V. V. Vlassov, and V. F. Zarytova, “Reactive oligonucleotide derivatives and sequence-specific modification of nucleic acids,” Biochimie 67, 785–789 (1985).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © S. Altman, 2017, published in Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2017, Vol. 87, No. 12, pp. 1068–1073.
Sidney Altman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Chemistry; Senior Research Scientist of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University (United States)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Altman, S. The origin of life, “the World of RNA,” and the problem of antibiotic resistance. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 87, 474–479 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331617060065
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331617060065