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Searching for a wrench to throw into the splicing machine

Nature Chemical Biology volume 4, pages 3–6 (2008)Cite this article

Many macromolecular complexes function as nanoscale machines performing important cellular jobs. However, their complex and dynamic natures pose challenges for detailed structure-function analysis. Small-molecule inhibitors, which can be identified by high-throughput screening, provide important leverage into the study of macromolecular assemblies by allowing researchers to capture transient intermediate states and probe important functional components.

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Figure 1: Representative antibiotic wrenches used to study ribosomes at several key steps of translation elongation.
Figure 2: Many wrenches are needed to capture spliceosome intermediate complexes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melissa S. Jurica is at the Center for Molecular Biology of RNA and the Department of Cell, Developmental and Molecular Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA. jurica@biology.ucsc.edu,

    Melissa S Jurica

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  1. Melissa S Jurica
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Jurica, M. Searching for a wrench to throw into the splicing machine. Nat Chem Biol 4, 3–6 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0108-3

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