Biological and Biochemical Characterization of Mutants of the RNase II family of enzymes

Dissertação para a obtenção de grau de doutor em Biologia pelo Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica. Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

The cellular concentration of a given RNA is the result of the balance between its synthesis and degradation. RNA degradation plays a fundamental role in RNA metabolism, since the fast turnover of mRNA is important for the control of gene expression. One of the key components of RNA metabolism are enzymes from the RNase II family.(...)