Trials, Travails and Triumphs: An Account of RNA Catalysis in RNase P Review Article

Last December marked the 20th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Sidney Altman and Thomas Cech for their discovery of RNA catalysts in bacterial ribonuclease P (an enzyme catalyzing 5′ maturation of tRNAs) and a self-splicing rRNA of Tetrahymena, respectively. Coinciding with the publication of a treatise on RNase P,1 this review provides a historical narrative, a brief report on our current knowledge, and a discussion of some research prospects on RNase P.