Editing biology’s central dogma

Published just last week in Science (M. Li et al. Science doi:10.1126/science.1207018 ; 2011), new findings may call for the rewriting of the central dogma of molecular biology to include an RNA ‘editing’ step during the process of protein assembly.  Such a step, which replaces individual letters in the genetic code to alter the resultant protein, would induce much more variety in protein production from the original DNA. The concept of RNA editing is not new, and many computational biologists are identifying flaws in these published observations. However, the extent of editing posited by the authors is large and, if the concept is confirmed, this could have major repercussions on the way we think about biology and genetics.

More information can be found:
Feature in Scientific American
Feature in Bio-IT world
Feature in Nature News