Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

The road to RNase P

Nature Structural Biology volume 7, pages 827–828 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

In 1989, Sidney Altman and Thomas R. Cech shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of catalytic properties of RNA.

Cech was studying the splicing of RNA in a unicellular organism called Tetrahymena thermophila. He found that the precursor RNA could splice in vitro in the absence of proteins.

Altman studied ribonuclease P (RNase P), a ribonucleoprotein that is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of tRNA. RNase P is an RNA processing endonuclease that specifically cleaves precursors of tRNA, releasing 5′ precursor sequences and mature tRNAs. RNase P is involved in processing all species of tRNA and is present in all cells and organelles that carry out tRNA synthesis.

What follows is a personal recollection by Altman of how he came to study this remarkable enzyme.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The structure of acridine.
Figure 2: Nucleotide sequence of su3+ tRNAITyr showing the sequence changes resulting from different single base substitution mutants.

References

  1. Abelson, J.N. et al. J.Mol.Biol. 47, 15–28 (1970).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hirsh, D. J.Mol.Biol. 58, 439–458 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Crick, F.H.C. et al. Nature 192, 1227–1232 (1961).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Riddle, E.L. and Carbon, J. Nat. New Biol. 242, 230–234 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Altman, S. In Les Prix Nobel 1989. (Almqvist and Wiksell, Stockholm), 140–160 (1989).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Burdon, R.H. Prog. Nucl. Acids Res. Mol. Biol. 11, 33–79 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bernhardt, D. and Darnell, J.E. J.Mol.Biol. 42, 43–56 (1967).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Altman, S. and Smith, J.D. Nat. New Biol. 233, 35–39 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Robertson, H.D. et al. J.Biol.Chem. 247, 5243–5251 (1972).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Altman, S. and Kirsebom, L.A. In The RNA world, eds. R.F. Gesteland, J.F. Alkins & T.R. Cech (Cold Spring Harbor, New York), Second edition, 351–380 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Smith, J.D. Brookhaven symposia in biology. 26. 1–11 (1974).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, Kline Biology Tower, 219 Prospect Street, New Haven, 06520-8103, Conneticut, USA

    Sidney Altman

Authors
  1. Sidney Altman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Altman, S. The road to RNase P. Nat Struct Mol Biol 7, 827–828 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/79566

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/79566

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing