RNA editing changes one of the information - carrying subunits of RNA from the nucleotide adenosine to one called inosine.
Not exact matches
Finally, even the coding and base - paring capacity of
RNA can be altered — by
RNA editing, in which bases in the
RNA are
changed on the fly.
The gene -
editing success appears to be largely due to one procedural
change: The researchers introduced the
editing system — the enzyme Cas9 and a guide
RNA sequence that helps the
editing machinery find its target — at the same time they injected the mutation - laden sperm into a healthy egg in the lab.
While newly synthesized
RNA encodes the exact information found in DNA, it's when later
RNA editing occurs that
RNA gets altered, a
change most often catalyzed by ADARs.
If
RNA editing allows
changes in the cephalopod's DNA to occur at a markedly slower rate than is normally assumed, the animals most likely arose many millions of years earlier than current time lines suggest.
What's more, such extensive
RNA editing seems to have helped to minimize
changes in the cephalopod DNA over the eons that they have been around.
Unlike the permanent
changes to the genome required for DNA
editing,
RNA editing offers a safer, more flexible way to make corrections in the cell.
RNA editing, which can alter gene products without making
changes to the genome, has profound potential as a tool for both research and disease treatment.
The researchers also found evidence of extensive
RNA editing, which allows the octopus to alter protein sequences without
changing underlying DNA code.