Sublime

you want to reproduce GGG, you first have to copy it into CCC, which can in turn be used to direct the formation of another GGG: GGG → CCC → GGG.

TERT (standing for telomerase reverse transcriptase)

“Deoxyribonucleic acid,” I say. “It’s a molecular blueprint for all living things and it’s composed of nucleotides.” He squints at me, unsure of what to think. “Which are?” “Molecules.” I say. “And yeah, I know that a molecule is a bunch of atoms stuck together. DNA is a four-letter code. A. T. G. and C. Adenine, thymine, guanine, and cy…cy…” “Cyto

The RNA of the large subunit of the ribosome folds into a multibranched structure; only the portion that catalyzes the peptidyl transfer reaction is shown here (structure at upper right). The ribosome illustrated contains two tRNAs, bound to adjacent triplet codons on the mRNA. One tRNA carries the growing protein chain (shapes represent five diffe

One of the dreams of present-day researchers is still the construction of a minimal enzyme capable of making copies of oligonucleotides – an RNA polymerase.

How could a protein enzyme possibly know how to make a specific DNA sequence as long as six nucleotides? No such enzyme had ever been found. DNA and RNA polymerases are capable of synthesizing long strings of nucleotides, but they don’t do it by themselves—they use DNA as a template. Reverse transcriptases, such as those found in retroviruses, use

the end of each Tetrahymena minichromosome, Liz discovered something very strange: a short six-letter sequence repeated many times. One strand had repeats of CCCCAA,

extract inhibits the protein synthesis. Thus, it will not be enough to find a way to make ordered sequences of DNA, RNA, and proteins (still open questions), but we will have to find a way to concentrate them in a small compartment having dimensions of a few microns.