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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Scientists engineer space-age molecules from nature's blueprints

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Yale scientists engineer space-age molecules from nature’s blueprints Credit: Patrick Lynch, Yale University

The enzyme needed to introduce the key micronutrient selenium into bacteria looks something like a space station with 10 different docking stations.

The docking stations (in brown) are representations of tiny genetic instruction manuals known as tRNAs or transfer RNAs.

By editing or changing these docking stations on the protein, Yale researchers led by Dieter Söll, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysiology and Biochemistry, have shown they can enhance function of a protein to produce of antioxidants crucial to human health.

The research, published in the April 5 issue of the journal Science, illustrates the potential power of synthetic biology to produce enhanced biological products not found in nature.

For more information on the evolutionary history of the selenocysteine enzyme and a three-D movie of its structure, visit the website.

Explore further: Bacteria yield clues about why proteins go bad in ALS and Alzheimer's

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