The striking functional versatility of RNA is attributable to its remarkable capacity for conformational change. Current models of RNA synthesis, its maturation, translation, and degradation are all based on specific structures and there is growing appreciation of the functional importance of interactions between RNA and RNA-binding proteins. This book identifies the major intellectual and technical advances in understanding the part played by structure in how RNA works. It encompasses the experimental approaches used to define RNA structure and its influence on RNA functions such as transcription termination, catalysis, recoding, and translational control. Investigators with these interests and students of molecular biology will find this volume a thoroughly up-to-date, provocative survey of a rapidly advancing field and a valuable complement to the recent, highly successful Cold Spring Harbor monograph The RNA World.