The traditional explanation of the initial genetic code in life seems less established when ancient proteins seem to be recalling some other arrangement of amino-acids. A recent examination of protein ...

Life runs on instructions you never see. Every cell reads DNA, turns that message into RNA, and then builds proteins that ...

Synthetic bacteria with expanded genetic codes can evolve proteins in the laboratory with enhanced properties using mechanisms that might not be possible with nature's 20 amino acid building blocks.

A team of investigators at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and its Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology in La Jolla, California is introducing revolutionary changes into the genetic code of ...

Hidden within the genetic code lies the "triplet code," a series of three nucleotides that determine a single amino acid. How did scientists discover and unlock this amino acid code? Once the budding ...

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) report in an upcoming article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society their synthesis of a form of the bacterium Escherichia coli with a ...

The dictionary of life has a new update. A DNA sequence that signals cells in almost all other organisms to stop synthesising proteins instead encodes a rare amino acid in some archaea, according to a ...

Evolution settled on a genetic code that uses four letters to name 20 amino acids. Synthetic biologists adding new bases to DNA will be free to improve on nature — if they can. With recent innovations ...

Strecker synthesis is one of several means of producing α-amino acids. α-amino acids are molecules, which contain an amine and carboxylic group that are separated by a single carbon (the α-carbon).