Dynamics and Mechanism of Chemical Modification of Nucleic Acids
Xin Sheng Zhao

College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Why and how do twins develop into individuals of different identities, although they carry an identical gene? What is the molecular mechanism of human memory and thinking. How does a tumor start and evolve? These questions are among most intriguing questions in life sciences, and they have a common feature: although an individual living body develops under a predetermined DNA sequence, its fate can be different depending on different experiences. This fact cannot be explained merely by the "central dogma". The interaction from the environment will put prints on the living body, and such prints are the heritable chemical modifications of biomolecules, which influences the further evolution of the living body. The study on the biological function of heritable chemical modification on biomolecules is a frontier in current life sciences, and it has great biological significance. Due to previously limited research tools, the study on the dynamic mechanism of chemical modification of nucleic acid is still on a rudimentary stage. We have been launching an invesigation of the dynamic and molecular mechanism of chemical modification on nucleic acid by enzymes by using single molecule detection coupled with other techniques. I will talk about our work of single base-pair flipping in double-stranded DNA which is a piece of essential information for understanding the DNA modification and our work of uracil modification in RNA by the H/ACA RNP enzyme.