Protein-building RNA molecules reveal possible remnants of an ancestral genetic code

The genetic code determines the correspondence between genetic instructions and amino acids—the building blocks that form proteins. How this correspondence arose is one of the major open questions in evolutionary biology. A study led by Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana, ICREA researcher at IRB Barcelona, and Dr. Paul Schimmel, with the participation of researchers from MIT and Scripps Research, has identified conserved signals in transfer RNAs that could help reconstruct the early stages of this system.