Cells working with an expanded genetic code could make more diverse medicines. A new study shows scientists are within striking distance. One of modern biologists' most ambitious goals is to learn how ...

Superimposed on the genetic sequences coding for amino acids is a second genetic code. This second genetic code, which makes use of dual-use codons, or duons, specifies how genes are controlled. The ...

Synonymous codons are used non-randomly in the transcriptome to shape multiple aspects of translation. Optimal codons are associated with more efficient translation and correspond to cognate tRNA ...

Represented here by a tomato and a rope, ribosomes are central to all life on Earth because they help translate genetic information into proteins. Image by Gene-Wei Li/UCSF A hidden and never before ...

How does DNA determine an organism’s characteristics? A process called translation decodes RNA created during transcription, and uses it to create proteins that perform specific cellular functions.

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 ...

The degeneracy of the genetic code allows nucleic acids to encode amino acid identity as well as noncoding information for gene regulation and genome maintenance. The rare arginine codons AGA and AGG ...

A central tenet of biology may need updating given new measurements of start codons. For decades, scientists working with genetic material have labored with a few basic rules in mind. To start, DNA is ...

As wildly diverse as life on Earth is—whether it’s a jaguar hunting down a deer in the Amazon, an orchid vine spiraling around a tree in the Congo, primitive cells growing in boiling hot springs in ...

LA JOLLA, CA—One of modern biologists’ most ambitious goals is to learn how to expand or otherwise modify the genetic code of life on Earth, in order to make new, artificial life forms. Part of the ...