Let's Get Mental By Dustin Driver

When you edit DNA, it’s permanent. The cell you edit will be changed forever, or at least until it dies. But what if there was a less-permanent way to edit genes?  There is, actually. It’s called RNA editing and it happens quite a bit in our own cells. RNA is the go-between in protein synthesis. DNA codes to RNA, which then codes to specific proteins. Proteins are what we’re all about, so if you alter anything in that production chain, you can potentially change the entire organism. In nature, RNA editing happens in that stage between DNA and protein synthesis. Here’s how it works: Imagine protein synthesis: DNA unravels and pairs up with messenger RNA. That RNA breaks off and goes to assemble some protein. Before it can, some sneaky enzymes jump in and make some changes to the RNA. Thanks to those changes, the RNA makes a new protein—one that isn’t coded in the DNA.  Why would this happen? Multicellular organisms like you and me are super complicated. We require lots of different kinds of proteins to func