Preface to the Proceedings of the 1988 Albany Conference on RNA: Catalysis, Splicing, Evolution (M. Belfort and D. Shub). Catalytic RNA Comparative and functional anatomy of group II catalytic introns - a review (F. Michel, K. Umesono and H. Ozeki). Studies on the hammerhead RNA self-cleaving domain (D.E. Ruffner, S.C. Dahm and O.C. Uhlenbeck). Sequences required for self-catalyzed cleavage of the satellite RNA of tobacco ringspot virus (J. Haseloff and W.L. Gerlach). Two sequences participating in the autolytic processing of satellite tobacco ringspot virus complementary RNA (P.A. Feldstein, J.M. Buzayan and G. Bruening). Catalysis by the RNA subunit of RNase P - a minireview (S. Altman, M.F. Baer, M. Bartkiewicz, H. Gold, C. Guerrier-Takada, L.A. Kirsebom, N. Lumelsky and K. Peck). Phylogenetic comparative analysis and the secondary structure of ribonuclease P RNA - a review (N.R. Pace, D.K. Smith, G.J. Olsen and B.D. James). The catalytic core of the sun Y of bacteriophage T4 (M.-Q. Xu and D.A. Shub). Amplification, mutation, and selection of catalytic RNA (G.F. Joyce). Intron mobility - transposon splicing Group I introns as mobile genetic elements: facts and mechanistic speculations - a review (B. Dujon). Mobile introns: definition of terms and recommended nomenclature (B. Dujon, M. Belfort, R.A. Butow, C. Jacq, C. Lemieux, P.S. Perlman and V.M. Vogt). A site-specific endonuclease and co-conversion of flanking exons associated with the mobile td intron of phage T4 (D. Bell-Pedersen, S.M. Quirk, M. Aubrey and M. Belfort). The splicing of maize transposable elements from pre- mRNA - a minireview (S.R. Wessler). snRNAs and splicing Small nuclear RNAs from budding yeasts: phylogenetic comparisons reveal extensive size variation (H. Roiha, E.O. Shuster, D.A. Brow and C. Guthrie). Mutational analysis of the interactions between U1 small nuclear RNA and pre-mRNA of yeast (B. Séraphin and M. Rosbash). Biological diversity of RNA processing RNA editing: the creation of nucleotide sequence in mRNA - a minireview (K. Stuart, J.E. Feagin and J.M. Abraham). The control of sexual development in Drosophila melanogaster: genetic and molecular analysis of a genetic regulatory hierarchy - a minireview (J.M. Belote). Heat-shock disruption of trans-splicing in trypanosomes: effect on Hsp70, Hsp85 and tubulin mRNA synthesis (M.L. Muhich, M.P. Hsu and J.C. Boothroyd). Characterization of the spliced leader genes and transcripts in Trypanosoma cruzi (C. McCarthy-Burke, Z.A. Taylor and G.A. Buck). Group I splicing - recent reviews Conserved sequences and structures of group I introns: building an active site for RNA catalysis - a review (T.R. Cech). Molecular genetics of group I introns: RNA structures and protein factors required for splicing - a review (J.M. Burke).