This story is part of our series on viroids and virusoids, small infectious RNAs. The story is also the second installment in a series on hepatitis D virus, a virusoid-like pathogen that causes ...

Scientists have long pondered the beginnings of life on Earth. One theory is that RNA, which is ubiquitous across all domains of life, played a central role in early life. Similar to DNA, RNA ...

Two separate laboratory breakthroughs have produced RNA molecules that can build copies of themselves or assemble functional structures without any help from proteins or DNA. These results offer the ...

(Christoph Burgstedt/iStock/Getty Images Plus) The RNA world hypothesis posits that molecules made up of ribonucleic acids (RNA) are responsible for kickstarting evolution and all life on Earth – and ...

Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth – a key process in the origin of life. Scientists ...

HIV replication in the human body requires that specific viral RNAs be packaged into progeny virus particles. A new study has found how a small difference in the RNA sequence can allow the viral RNA ...

Cells use the genetic information contained in DNA to generate proteins, which carry out many of the processes of life. RNA is the intermediate molecule; it is transcribed from DNA, then edited, ...

The intricate division of labor within a "crown-shaped" protein complex, which viruses use to replicate their ribonucleic ...

This story is part of a larger series on viroids and virusoids, small infectious RNAs. It is also the sixth installment in a series on hepatitis D virus, a virusoid-like pathogen that causes serious ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, the Salk Institute and Sanford Burnham Prebys have ...