Chinese Scientists Discover Structural Basis of Pre-mRNA Splicing

hackingbear writes: On August 21st, the research team led by Prof. Yigong Shi from School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University in China published two side-by-side research articles in Science, reporting the long-sought-after structure of a yeast spliceosome at 3.6 angstrom resolution determined by single particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and the molecular mechanism of pre-messenger RNA splicing. Until now, decades of genetic and biochemical experiments have identified almost all proteins in spliceosome and uncovered some functions. Yet, the structure remained a mystery for a long time. The works, primarily performed by Dr. Chuangye Yan, and Ph.D students Jing Hang and Ruixue Wan under Prof. Yigong Shi's supervision, settled this Holy Grail question and established the structural basis for the related area. This work was supported by funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Comments

Remember when America had science?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those were good years.

Re: Remember when America had science?

[Anonymous Coward]

At least we don't cover up our history like they do.

+1 agree. quality of lies much better here

In english, why is this a holy grail:

[cartesius]

From TFA: Besides the basic biological importance of spliceosome, numerous diseases are related to the dysfunction of spliceosomal regulation or the splicing mistakes. Almost 35 percent of genetic disorder is resulted from wrong splicing

Re:Can one do science without racism ?

[Tablizer]

If it were American scientists and some Chinese made hamburger jokes, would it be "racist"? I don't know what the exact algorithm/formula is for determining "racism".

Re:Can one do science without racism ?

[Tablizer]

I would call that "culturally insensitive" perhaps, but NOT "racism". The R word is used too often. That joke is not demeaning in any definitive or clear sense. If I had implied that kind of food was dangerous or foul, I could see a real reason to complain.

I don't see associating the USA with hamburgers or cowboys offensive in any way to USA citizens unless negative traits were implied to be associated with them, such as obesity (burger) or excess bravado (cowboy).

I see 3 possible levels of association:

1. Associating situations with an ethnic trait or convention
2. Demeaning of an ethnic trait or convention
3. Demeaning of an ethnic group directly ("the X people are bad").

To be on the safe side, we could say "never do #1", but that's PC overkill. If I were an international diplomat, yes #1 probably should be ruled out. But, it's slashdot; we should be able to have a little bit of fun.