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The RNA World NO W in The RNA World NO W IN "~ ~'FILE Monograph 24 Edited by Raymond F. Gesteland, University of Utah; John F. Atkins, University of Utah and University College Cork With Foreword by Francis Crick and Prologue by James D. Watson Recent research has dramatically revealed that RNA has many different functions and some surpris- ing properties. These discoveries have reawakened interest in a prebiotic era imagined first by Francis Crick, Leslie Orgel and Carl Woese, when evolution depended solely on replicating RNA. Cold Spring.C~arbor@ LaboratoryPress This unique book is an exploration of the RNA world-its present, past and potential. The guides are some of that world's most distinguished travelers. They include Crick, Orgel and Woese and leading in- the Large Catalytic RNAs: Group I and Group 11 lntrons and vestigators of contemporary RNA function. Written Ribonuclease P (T.R. Cech); Divalent Metal Ions in RNA Folding and Catalysis (T. Pan et al.); Splicing of Precursors to mRNAs by for both the specialist and nonspecialist, this book is the Spliceosome (M.J. Moore et al.); The Diverse World of Small essential reading for everyone interested in nucleic Ribonucleoproteins (S.J. Baserga, J.A. Steitz); RNA Editing: New acids today. Uses for Old Players in the RNA World (B.L. Bass); Evolution of Functional Structures of RNA (J. Tomizawa); Thermodynamic CONTENTS Considerations for Evolution by RNA (D.H. Turner, P.C. Bevilac- Foreword (Francis Crick) qua); RNA Structural Elements and RNA Function (J.R. Wyatt, I. Prologue (James D. Watson) Tinoco, Jr.); RNA: The Shape of Things to Come (L. Gold et ai.); Prospects for Understanding the Origin of the RNA World (G.F. In Vitro Selection of Functional RNA Sequences (J.W. Szostak, Joyce, L.E. Orgei); Reading the Palimpsest: Contemporary Bio- A.D. Eliington); Contemporary RNA Genomes (J.F. Atkins); Telo- chemical Data and the RNA World (S.A. Benner et al.); Specula- merase (E.H. Blackburn); The Genomic Tag Hypothesis: Modern tions on the Origin of Ribosomal Translocation (R. Weiss, J. Viruses as Molecular Fossils of Ancient Strategies for Gcnomic Cherry); Probing RNA Structure, Function, and History by Com- Replication (N. Maizels and A.M. Weiner) parative Analysis (C.R. Woese, N.R. Pace); Ribosomes and the Appendices RNA World (P.B. Moore); On the Origin of the Ribosome: Coevo- Structures of Base Pairs Involving at Least Two Hydrogen Bonds lution of Subdomains of tRNA and rRNA (H.F. Noller); Transfer (I. Tinoco, Jr.); RNA Pseudoknots (C.W.A. Pleij); Stereo Pairs of RNA: An RNA for All Seasons (D. $611); Antibiotics and the RNA RNA Fragments (I. Tinoco, Jr.) World: A Role for Low-molecular-weight Effectors in Biochemi- cal Evolution? (J. Davies et al.); An RNA-Amino Acid Affinity 1993, 632 pp., illus., color plates, appendices, index (M. Yarus); Similarities and Differences between RNA and DNA Cloth $95 ISBN 0-87969-380-0 Recognition by Proteins (T.A. Steitz); Structure and Mechanism of Paper $45 ISBN 0-87969-456-4 --Here's what the reviewers have to say: "This dense book, The RNA World, brings toge~ther all the work in this interesting and exciting field, and...it offers a uniquely authoritative account of research on RNA catalysis in biological systems, and theories of how these surviving functions reflect the properties of a prebiotic world of RNA." ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................,=SydneyBrenner,,~Naturg ........ ",,the snapshot presented in The RNA Worm captures provocative evolutionary thought, sound basic science, and a framework for future development of RNA as a reagent for the laboratory and the clinic. The book was named for the RNA world hypothesis, which posits that all mod- em life forms descended from a primordial self-replicating entity, reliant on RNA for both its genetic and enzymatic properties." -- Marlene Belfort and David Shub, Cell "...the reader can readily see the value and timeliness of this volume, and can anticipate further excitement to come from explorers of the RNA world." --Hugh D. 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