A surprising number of the proteins that transcribe DNA into RNA are reading the DNA backwards, two large-scale surveys report.
RNA polymerases use DNA templates to make RNA molecules, some of which are then used to make proteins. Phillip Sharp of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and his colleagues have found that, whereas one type of polymerase binds to the start of a gene and proceeds towards the end, another often binds near the start site and heads in the opposite direction. This creates a shorter, 'antisense' (complementary) RNA molecule.
Meanwhile, John Lis and his colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, reached a similar conclusion after creating a quantitative map of sites at which polymerase is bound to DNA and is actively synthesizing RNA. The function of these short antisense RNAs remains unclear.
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Molecular biology: Not so common sense. Nature 456, 678 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/456678e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/456678e
