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.

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 ...

This circular diagram represents the genetic code, showing how the four nucleotide bases of RNA (adenine [A], cytosine [C], guanine [G], and uracil [U]) form codons that specify amino acids. Each ...

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 ...

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

The DNA of nearly all life on Earth contains many redundancies, and scientists have long wondered whether these redundancies served a purpose or if they were just leftovers from evolutionary processes ...

Living things, from bacteria to humans, depend on a workforce of proteins to carry out essential tasks within their cells. Proteins are chains of amino acids that are strung together according to ...

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 ...

This is a preview. Log in through your library . Abstract The frequency of point mutations at codons 12 and 13 of the c-K-ras gene has been determined in a panel of more than 400 human tumors. Mutant ...

Liquid culture flasks of bacteria grown in yellow broth covered with tinfoil on a shaker. Bacterial strains needed to be tested every step of the way to create the highly compressed genome. Credit: ...

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 ...