Scientists get first detailed look at Dicer

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A front-on view of a ribbon representation of Dicer shows the enzyme to resemble an axe with the RNA clamp at the handle (the PAZ domain) and the cleaver at the blade (RNase IIIa and IIIb). A flat connector area measuring 65 angstroms is the ruler po ...
A front-on view of a ribbon representation of Dicer shows the enzyme to resemble an axe with the RNA clamp at the handle (the PAZ domain) and the cleaver at the blade (RNase IIIa and IIIb). A flat connector area measuring 65 angstroms is the ruler portion that is used to measure out segments of 25 nucleotides (bases) in length. A segment of double-stranded RNA (blue) is shown passing through the Dicer enzyme.

Scientists have gotten their first detailed look at the molecular structure of an enzyme that Nature has been using for eons to help silence unwanted genetic messages. A team of researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley used x-ray crystallography at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) to determine the crystal structure of Dicer, an enzyme that plays a critical role in the process known as RNA interference. The Dicer enzyme is able to snip a double-stranded form of RNA into segments that can attach themselves to genes and block their activity.


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