Course Description

Lectures, analysis, and discussion of current literature, student presentations. Biochemical, biophysical, and genetic approaches to understanding nucleic acids. General properties, functions, and structural motifs of DNA and RNA. DNAs and RNAs as catalysts. Interaction of nucleic acids with proteins such as repressors, restriction and modification enzymes, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and other proteins of the translational machinery. RNA protein recognition. Selection and engineering approaches for generating nucleic acid molecules with novel catalytic and binding properties.