A new study of transfer RNA, a molecule that delivers amino acids to the protein-building machinery of the cell, challenges long-held ideas about the evolutionary history of protein synthesis. In the study, researchers report that the dual functions of transfer RNA (reading the genetic blueprint for a protein, and adding a specific amino acid to the protein as it is formed) appear to have originated independently of one another. The new findings are detailed in the July 30 Public Library of Sc (source: news.uiuc.edu)
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