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Non-coding RNA foreseen 48 years ago

Nature volume 497, page 188 (2013)Cite this article

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The recent enthusiasm for studying non-coding RNAs (Nature 496, 127–129; 2013) brings to mind a largely forgotten review article that I wrote almost half a century ago in Evolving Genes and Proteins (V. Bryson and H. J. Vogel (eds) 469; Academic Press, 1965). This review reached a conclusion that was judged to be profoundly heretical at the time.

The article summarized years of work on the turnover of nuclear RNA, carried out during a period when pulse-labelled RNA was almost universally misdiagnosed as messenger RNA. It concluded: “Only a small proportion of the RNA made in the nucleus of animal and higher plant cells serves as a template for the synthesis of protein. This RNA is characterised by its ability to assume a form which protects it from intracellular degradation. Most of the nuclear RNA, however, is made on parts of the DNA which do not contain information for the synthesis of specific proteins. This RNA does not assume the configuration necessary for protection from degradation and is eliminated.”

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  1. University of Oxford, UK

    Henry Harris

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  1. Henry Harris
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Correspondence to Henry Harris.

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Harris, H. Non-coding RNA foreseen 48 years ago. Nature 497, 188 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/497188d

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