{"68603":{"#nid":"68603","#data":{"type":"news","title":"RNA-driven genetic changes in bacteria and in human cells","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new study demonstrates RNA-driven genetic changes in bacteria and in human \ncells. \u003Cbr \/\u003ENot long ago, it was considered that the major role played by RNA was \nto carry genetic information for protein synthesis. Although an astonishing \nvariety of RNA functions have been found in the last few decades, it has always \nbeen very difficult to determine if any RNA has the capacity to genetically \nmodify the DNA of cells.\u003C\/p\u003EA double-strand break in the DNA genome of human embryonic \nkidney cells was repaired by RNA-containing molecules, which restored the \nfunction of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene, making the human cells \nfluoresce green.\n\u003Cp\u003EBy using RNA-containing oligos, the Storici\u2019s team (Assistant Professor, \nSchool of Biology) has found that RNA can function as a template for DNA \nsynthesis without being reverse transcribed into cDNA, not only in yeast but \nalso in \u003Cem\u003EEscherichia coli\u003C\/em\u003E and in the human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) \ncells. These findings establish that a direct flow of genetic information from \nRNA to DNA can occur in organisms as diverse as bacteria and humans, and thus, \nit can be a significant source of genetic variation. The goal of future research \nis to understand the mechanisms by which RNA can directly transfer information \nto the DNA of cells and to reveal the circumstances in which RNA information can \nflow to DNA. \u003Cbr \/\u003EThe study, which was published April\u0026nbsp;14 in the advance online \nedition of the journal \u003Cem\u003EMutation Research\u003C\/em\u003E, was conducted by a group of \ngraduate and undergraduate students in the Storici\u2019s lab in the School of \nBiology at Georgia Tech in collaboration with Bernard Weiss from Emory \nUniversity School of Medicine. \u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"A new study demonstrates RNA-driven genetic changes in bacteria and in human cells."}],"field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new study demonstrates RNA-driven genetic changes in bacteria and in human cells."}],"uid":"27349","created_gmt":"2011-06-28 12:32:41","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:09:40","author":"Floyd Wood","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"68624":{"id":"68624","type":"image","title":"RNA Strand","body":null,"created":"1449177185","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:05","changed":"1475894597","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:17","alt":"RNA Strand","file":{"fid":"192619","name":"rna_strand.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":43332,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/rna_strand_0.jpg?itok=fZn_Z57v"}}},"media_ids":["68624"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13560","name":"Francesca Storici"},{"id":"984","name":"RNA"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Biology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:admin@biology.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eadmin@biology.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["admin@biology.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}