AARS urzymes: Experimental biochemistry to map genetic coding

Abstract

AARS urzymes: Experimental biochemistry to map genetic coding Dr Charlie Carter from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explores how advances in enzymology and phylogenetics enable biochemical measurements that could map the ancestral development of genetic coding. Chemical reactions in the cell degrade energy-rich food molecules and rearrange their chemical bonds into other molecules necessary to construct and sustain living things far from chemical equilibrium. Those reactions occur spontaneously at rates that span an extraordinary range, the fastest going up to 1025 times faster than the slowest. (1) All these reactions must be accelerated by different amounts to maintain adequate concentrations of chemical components in the cell. Enzymes perform that differential acceleration exquisitely well.