© 1998 • 741 pp., illus., color plates, index
Cloth • ISBN  0-87969-509-9

The striking functional versatility of RNA is attributable to its remarkable capacity for conformational change. Current models of RNA synthesis, its maturation, translation, and degradation are all based on specific structures and there is growing appreciation of the functional importance of interactions between RNA and RNA-binding proteins. This book identifies the major intellectual and technical advances in understanding the part played by structure in how RNA works. It encompasses the experimental approaches used to define RNA structure and its influence on RNA functions such as transcription termination, catalysis, recoding, and translational control. Investigators with these interests and students of molecular biology will find this volume a thoroughly up-to-date, provocative survey of a rapidly advancing field and a valuable complement to the recent, highly successful Cold Spring Harbor monograph The RNA World.

  "This book is a well-organized, informative contribution. The articles are particularly well written and can be understood by nonspecialists. The volume is highly recommended for assigned readings or as a reference for graduate courses in molecular biology or macromolecules. It is also a very useful reference for the specialist in RNA studies."
      —The Quarterly Review of Biology

  "Though not a book for bedtime reading, it is comprehensive, clearly written and well produced for the professional and aspiring scientist. It teaches biologists to have a healthy respect for the medium that carries the message and will delight chemists in revealing the diversity of biological information that chemistry allows."
      —Chemistry & Industry