Topic: RNA

This EMBO–EMBL symposium examines how messenger and non-coding RNAs transmit and regulate genetic information. It connects transcription, processing and modification, export and localisation, surveillance and decay, translation, and coupling between these processes. Sessions cover co-transcriptional and co-translational biology, RNA processing, RNP condensates, structure and regulation, and pathogens and therapeutics. The programme uses Europe/Berlin time: opening remarks on 13 October at 20:00, followed by the first keynote at 20:15; sessions begin at 09:00 on 14–15 October and 10:00 on 16 O

This EMBO workshop covers emerging chemical-biology research spanning computational protein design, big data and AI, technologies for probing and manipulating biology, chemical synthetic biology, and RNA.

Living systems select one molecular handedness, making the origin of homochirality a central problem in understanding how life began. David Lacoste examines how this asymmetry can emerge in autocatalytic chemical networks when they contain sufficiently many chiral species and operate far from equilibrium. Polymerization greatly expands molecular diversity, raising the question of whether it can also generate and preserve a preference for one handedness. The talk develops this connection through an RNA reactor model, studying the conditions under which template-directed ligation and polymerizat

Steven Strogatz explores the origins of life with Jack Szostak and Betül Kaçar. Szostak considers how early-Earth chemistry, including cyanide-bearing environments, could give rise to precursors of RNA and DNA, and discusses competing settings for life’s beginnings. Kaçar explains how reconstructing ancient genes helps researchers investigate the evolution of essential biological processes. Together, the conversations examine what experiments can reveal about the earliest steps toward life and whether replaying evolutionary history would produce different outcomes.

Biomolecular condensation is a mechanism for controlling cell organization. Many condensates are rich in nuclei acids such as RNA. The role of specific RNA sequences and structures in promoting the molecular identity of condensates formed for cell polarity and division and by the SARS CoV-2 virus will be discussed.

The neuronal gene Arc is essential for long-lasting information storage in the mammalian brain and mediates various forms of synaptic plasticity. We recently discovered that Arc self-assembles into virus-like capsids that encapsulate RNA. Endogenous Arc protein is released from neurons in extracellular vesicles that mediate the transfer of Arc mRNA into new target cells. Evolutionary analysis indicates that Arc is derived from a vertebrate lineage of Ty3/gypsy retrotransposons, which are also ancestral to retroviruses such as HIV. These findings suggest that Gag retroelements have been repurpo