Although the genetic material of most living organisms is DNA, various self-replicating agents rely instead on RNA, including RNA viruses and viroids, which are infectious RNA molecules that are ...

Biological entities called obelisks have been hiding—in large numbers—inside the human mouth and gut. These microscopic entities, which were recently discovered by a team at Stanford University, are ...

This story is part of a larger series on viroids and virusoids, small infectious RNAs. You may read the others on Forbes or www.williamhaseltine.com. Transcriptomics refers to the analysis of all the ...

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have discovered a previously unknown self-replicating circular RNA in a high-temperature hot spring environment. Previously, self-replicating RNAs identified in ...

Viroids are closed circles of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that replicate at a very low level using host cell enzymes, since they do not usually encode proteins. The existence of over ten thousand viroids, ...