RNA, like protein, can sometimes function as an enzyme (ribozyme) to speed biochemical reaction rates. But how does RNA, a simple polymer, enhance reaction rates by at least a million fold? Researchers obtained the structures of a ribozyme trapped in different states of its catalytic cycle, showing how a change in the RNA conformation governs the reaction mechanism. Read more »
Designing a Novel Globular Protein Fold
A major challenge of computational structural biology has been to create, from scratch, new proteins with heretofore unobserved three-dimensional structures. Researchers have now developed and demonstrated a methodology for protein-structure prediction and design by creating the first artificial globular protein with a novel topology. Significantly, the x-ray structure agreed almost precisely with the structure specified by the computational model. Read more »
The Path of Messenger RNA through the Ribosome
Using x-ray crystallography, researchers directly observed the path of mRNA in the 70S ribosome in Fourier difference maps at 7 Å resolution. Image depicts the view down the crystallographic 4-fold axis of the 70S ribosome-mRNA-tRNA complex, showing the head-to-tail juxtaposition of the model mRNAs (red-orange) between adjacent ribosomes. Read more »
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