Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Molecular Biology
A study found that amino acids and nucleotide building blocks could jointly produce short peptides and oligonucleotides in one-pot reactions under prebiotic conditions. The linked chemistry formed a reactive intermediate that was associated with greater amounts of some oligomers than reactions using either type of building block alone.
A study using cryogenic electron microscopy of cell extracts found that the protein eEF2 was attached to more than 95% of hibernating ribosomes. The protein also unexpectedly bound to isolated 60S subunits, while other proteins occupied different ribosome sites.
A Nature Communications study describes Ribo-ITP, a ribosome-based method designed to find previously hard-to-detect protein-coding regions (translons) using far less starting material. Using samples such as microdissected mouse brain tissue and single early embryos, the researchers report discovering thousands of translons and test whether they can drive protein production.
