RNA-DEPENDENT SYNTHESIS OF MAMMALIAN mRNA: IDENTIFICATION OF CHIMERIC INTERMEDIATE AND PUTATIVE END PRODUCT

Our initial understanding of the flow of protein-encoding genetic information, DNA to RNA to protein, a process defined as the \"central dogma of molecular biology\", was eventually amended to account for the information back-flow from RNA to DNA (reverse transcription), and for its \"side-flow\" from RNA to RNA (RNA-dependent RNA synthesis, RdRs). These processes, both potentially leading to protein production, were described only in viral systems, and although putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) was shown to be present, and RdRs to occur, in most, if not all, mammalian cells, its function was presumed to be restricted to regulatory. Here we report the occurrence of protein-encodin