Understanding the Genetic Code

Another Understanding of the Model of Genetic Code Theoretical Analysis

At present the model of the genetic code (the code of protein biosynthesis) proposed almost 50 years ago by M. Nirenberg and F. Crick has undergone severe erosion. Tactically, it is true that triplicity and the synonymous degeneracy are unmistakable. But the Nirenberg-Crick postulate about unambiguous coding of amino acids, i.e., the strategy raises reasonable doubt. The reasons to doubt showed...

How selenium has altered our understanding of the genetic code.

Genetic Code: A New Understanding of Codon - Amino Acid Assignment

In this work it is shown that 20 canonical amino acids (AAs) within genetic code appear to be a whole system with strict AAs positions; more exactly, with AAs ordinal number in three variants; first variant 00-19, second 00-21 and third 00-20. The ordinal number follows from the positions of belonging codons, i.e. their digrams (or “doublets”). The reading itself is a reading in quaternary numb...

Expanding the genetic code.

Although chemists can synthesize virtually any small organic molecule, our ability to rationally manipulate the structures of proteins is quite limited, despite their involvement in virtually every life process. For most proteins, modifications are largely restricted to substitutions among the common 20 amino acids. Herein we describe recent advances that make it possible to add new building bl...

Reprogramming the genetic code.

When Maria Leptin called to say that I had been awarded the 2010 EMBO Gold Medal, I was delighted and surprised. The roll call of past winners is impressive, and I had been at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) when Jan Löwe had received the award in 2007 for his elegant work on the bacterial cytoskeleton (Michie and Löwe, 2006). I also knew that several other LMB scientists, including B...