Humans have a 'highly abundant' number of stable proteins that are not all predicted by genetic code
In 1968, the American biochemist and geneticist Marshall Nirenberg and his colleagues won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work deciphering how an organism's proteins are directly linked to its genetic code. That discovery is considered a "fundamental pillar of molecular biology," explained Nikolai Slavov, a distinguished professor of bioengineering. "It's in every textbook…
In 1968, American biochemist Marshall Nirenberg and his team won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for deciphering how an organism's proteins are linked to its genetic code. This discovery, a fundamental pillar of molecular biology, is taught in textbooks from high school to college. However, new research published in Nature reveals humans contain a highly abundant number of stable proteins that deviate from the genetic code, according to Nikolai Slavov, a distinguished professor of bioengineering.
Slavov's findings, built on Nirenberg's work, suggest proteins are formed through a process called alternative RNA decoding, where amino acid substitutions occur that deviate from the genetic code. These proteins are both abundant and stable, with their abundance potentially linked to tumor-adjacent tissues and possibly relevant to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
However, causal roles require further validation. The research, conducted on over a thousand human samples, challenges the notion that every protein is encoded by the genetic code.
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