4 ms·
Read the article, it answers your question in detail: > The very end of mRNA is polyadenylated. This is a fancy way of saying it ends on a lot of AAAAAAAAAAAAA
by atleta 6y ago
Read the article, it answers your question in detail:
> The very end of mRNA is polyadenylated. This is a fancy way of saying it ends on a lot of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Even mRNA has had enough of 2020 it appears.
> mRNA can be reused many times, but as this happens, it also loses some of the A’s at the end. Once the A’s run out, the mRNA is no longer functional and gets discarded. In this way, the ‘poly-A’ tail is protection from degradation.
Also, your cells continuously make mRNAs, depending on what proteins they need to synthesize. And those (have to) get discarded too. And also this is what happens to the actual viral RNA when the virus attacks you for real.
- throwawaysea 6y agoCan you explain what "discarded" means there? Does the body somehow flush it out?
- atleta 6y agoMy understanding was that it gets cut into pieces (probably nucleotides in the end) and then reused. I've done a quick google search and it seems that there are multiple mechanisms: http://www.eb.tuebingen.mpg.de/remco-sprangers/mrna-degradation.html http://www.eb.tuebingen.mpg.de/remco-sprangers/mrna-degradat... and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA#Degradation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA#Degradation But the main idea is that it degrades with use until it becomes unusable and actively gets destroyed.