Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Scientists crack 40-year-old DNA puzzle

Scientists crack 40-year-old DNA puzzle and point to ‘hot soup’ at the origin of life
(University of Bath)
“This simple theory explains many unresolved features of the current genetic code. No one has ever been able to do this before, so we are very excited.”

The theory also explains how the structure of the genetic code maximises error tolerance. For instance, ‘slippage’ in the translation process tends to produce another amino acid with the same characteristics, and explains why the DNA code is so good at maintaining its integrity.

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