A Brief History of RNA

By Jean-Marie Blanchard, DR-CNRS (retired).

Director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Montpellier (2003–2012)

Since 2016, member of the board of directors of the regional cancer league and vice-president of the national scientific council in charge of fundamental research.

An overview will be given of the various types of RNA operating in a cell, showing the essential role these molecules play in living organisms. We will immediately point out the problems associated with the central dogma of biology: DNA carries the information needed to assemble proteins, but proteins are needed to decode it. This led to the discovery of messenger RNA. Some of the amazing properties of RNAs will be briefly described. We will focus on the completely unexpected discovery of the catalytic activity of some of them, called ribozymes, properties that were thought to be reserved for enzyme proteins. RNA can also carry genetic information in the same way as DNA. It is now considered possible that the ancestors (now extinct) of living beings were made up of RNAs. Like the molecules that make up living organisms (the amino acids in proteins or the nucleotides in nucleic acids), these molecules could have been synthesized from very simple chemicals under the prebiotic conditions that existed in the oceans several billion years ago.

Finally, its use as a genetic tool and therapeutic agent will be discussed.

Conference organized byARUM ( Association of Retired Faculty of the University of Montpellier).