The past decades have witnessed tremendous developments in our understanding of RNA biology. At the core of these advances have been studies aimed at discerning RNA structure and at understanding the forces that influence the RNA folding process. It is easy to take the present state of understanding for granted, but there is much to be learned by considering the path to our current understanding, which has been tortuous, with the birth and death of models, the adaptation of experimental tools originally developed for characterization of protein structure and catalysis, and the development of novel tools for probing RNA. In this review we tour the stages of RNA folding studies, considering them as "epochs" that can be generalized across scientific disciplines. These epochs span from the discovery of catalytic RNA, through biophysical insights into the putative primordial RNA World, to characterization of structured RNAs, the building and testing of models, and, finally, to the development of models with the potential to yield generalizable predictive and quantitative models for RNA conformational, thermodynamic, and kinetic behavior. We hope that this accounting will aid others as they navigate the many fascinating questions about RNA and its roles in biology, in the past, present, and future.

中文翻译：

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RNA 折叠的故事，如纪元中所讲述的。


过去几十年见证了我们对 RNA 生物学的理解的巨大发展。这些进展的核心是旨在辨别 RNA 结构和了解影响 RNA 折叠过程的力量的研究。人们很容易认为目前的理解状态是理所当然的，但考虑到我们目前的理解之路是曲折的，随着模型的诞生和消亡，最初开发的实验工具的适应，还有很多东西值得学习。蛋白质结构和催化的表征，以及探测 RNA 的新工具的开发。在这篇综述中，我们回顾了 RNA 折叠研究的各个阶段，将它们视为可以跨科学学科推广的“时代”。这些时代跨越了从催化 RNA 的发现，到对假定的原始 RNA 世界的生物物理学见解，到结构化 RNA 的表征、模型的构建和测试，最后到有可能产生可推广的预测和结果的模型的开发。 RNA 构象、热力学和动力学行为的定量模型。我们希望这种解释能够帮助其他人解决有关 RNA 及其在过去、现在和未来在生物学中的作用的许多有趣问题。