Non Coding RNAs: Another Genetic Revolution

Snowcrash at Biosingularity Blog presents a very clear and readable article about the "dicer" molecule. I mentioned this molecule briefly when talking about crafty cancer researchers.

The use of Dicer in studying RNA interference, is part of a revolutionary development. The discovery that RNA performs more functions than merely acting as an intermediary between DNA and Protein, has opened up a rich and fertile field of study.

To understand Dicer, and RNA interference, it helps to get a grounding in the emerging branch of genetics known as NonCoding RNA. To assist in this pursuit, here is a link to an introductory primer on noncoding RNA by Sean Eddy. It is a pdf file, so you will need the free Adobe pdf reader. Also available is an HTML version of the file .

The above primer is a few years old, so some recent discoveries are not included. Once you have a fair handle on the concepts, do more targeted searches with Google Scholar, Scirus, or another good science search engine. Links are available in the sidebar to the right, under Science.

For a broader, more general introduction to genomics and bioinformatics, this online course provides a gentle introduction along with a huge number of links for further study.