How can just four nitrogenous bases--adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil--possibly code for all 20 amino acids? Thus, early researchers quickly determined that the smallest combination of As, Cs, ...

The findings, which detail how amino acids shaped the genetic code of ancient microorganisms, shed light on the mystery of how life began on Earth. "You see the same amino acids in every organism, ...

With only rare exceptions, every organism constructs proteins from just 20 building blocks called amino acids. Recently, however, researchers modified Escherichia coli bacteria so that the ...

To reveal the structural principles determining substrate specificity of 4-coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL), the crystal structure of the phenylalanine activation domain of gramicidin S synthetase was used ...

This is a preview. Log in through your library . Abstract Benzophenones are among the most useful photocrosslinking agents in biology. We have evolved an orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair ...

Membrane proteins play important roles in health and disease, but they are so hydrophobic that they require detergents to maintain their shape outside membranes. That makes them difficult to study.

Humans possess six forms of the protein actin, which perform essential functions in the body. Two in particular, β-actin and γ-actin, are nearly identical, only differing by four amino acids. Yet ...