RNA molecules play key roles in all aspects of cellular life, but to do so efficiently, they must work in synergism with proteins. This book addresses how proteins and RNA interact to carry out biological functions such as protein synthesis, regulation of gene expression, genome defense, liquid phase separation and more.

The topics addressed in this volume will appeal to researchers in biophysics, biochemistry and structural biology. The book is a useful resource for anybody interested in elucidating the molecular mechanisms and discrete properties of RNA-protein complexes. Included are reviews of key systems such as microRNA and CRISPR/Cas that exemplify how RNA and proteins work together to perform their biological function. Also covered are techniques ranging from single molecule fluorescence and force spectroscopy to crystallography, cryo-EM microscopy, and kinetic modeling.

Autorentext

Dr. David Rueda is a Professor at Imperial College. He is Chair of Molecular and Cellular Medicine. His research in the Rueda lab involves the development of quantitative single-molecule approaches to investigate the mechanism of complex biochemical systems (incl. RNA, DNA and protein). Previously, Dr. Rueda was an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. He received his Docteur ès Sciences from EPF Lausanne in 2001, and his Dipl. Chem. Eng. from EPF Lausanne in 1997. Dr. Chirlmin Joo studied physics at Seoul National University in Korea. He obtained his PhD in physics under the supervision of Taekjip Ha at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. In 2011, he started his faculty position in Department of Bionanoscience at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He developed the first single-molecule pull-down technique (the reconstitution of functional protein complexes at the single-molecule level). In 2018, Dr. Joo was appointed Director of Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft. He is the co-founder of a startup company, Bluemics.

Inhalt
Part 1: RNA Binding Proteins.- Chapter 1: How proteins recognize RNA.- Chapter 2: The interaction between L7Ae family of proteins and RNA kink turns.- Chapter 3: Evolving methods in defining the role of RNA in RNP assembly.- Chapter 4: Single-molecule studies of exonuclease: Following cleavage actions one step at a time.- Chapter 5: Fitting in the age of single-molecule experiments: A guide to maximum-likelihood estimation and its advantages.- Part II: Transcription and Translation.- Chapter 6: A single-molecule view on cellular and viral RNA synthesis.- Chapter 7: Single-Molecule Optical Tweezers Studies of Translation.- Part III: RNA-Guided Protein Machineries.- Chapter 8: Biophysical and biochemical approaches in the analysis of Argonaute-miRNA complexes.- Chapter 9: Biophysics of RNA-guided CRISPR immunity.- Chapter 10: Dynamics of MicroRNA Biogenesis.