synbio – Page 3 – My WordPress Site

Journey of a noncanonical amino acid into a polypeptide. The cell takes up the ncAA from its environment or biosynthesizes it. The ncAA should not interfere with the host metabolism nor act as a toxin. To accumulate, it must not be degraded nor excreted by the cell. If its intracellular concentration reaches an adequate level, an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (AARS) activates it and charges it onto a tRNA. Discrimination against the ncAA by the editing function of some AARS prevents the downstream steps and should be avoided. An elongation factor delivers the ncAA-charged tRNA to the ribosome, where it participates in ribosomal translation. Peptide bonding stably incorporates the ncAA into the nascent polypeptide. The resulting alloprotein must be able to fold correctly and should not be degraded, e.g., by proteolytic enzymes. Chemical Reviews via PubMed

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio

Residue-Specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids in Auxotrophic Hosts: Quo Vadis?

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2025September 25, 2025

Amplification of the successor function under varying initial conditions. For each pixel in the heatmap, 100 soups containing 5000 expressions are run for 106 collisions. We measure the number of soups containing at least 20% successor functions at the end of their runs. Each soup is initialized with a small fraction of successor functions (yaxis), and a large fraction of test functions (x-axis). Bright yellow indicates that all soups have a large quantity of successor functions, dark blue indicates that none do. -- cs.FL

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life

Prebiotic Functional Programs: Endogenous Selection In An Artificial Chemistry

by Keith CowingSeptember 15, 2025September 14, 2025

Codons for the amino acids serine and alanine plus one stop codon were eliminated, requiring over 101,000 recoding events. -- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life

Synthetic Biology: Syn57 Represents A New Chapter In The Genetic Code Of Life

by Keith CowingAugust 27, 2025

(A) Equivalent complex circuit model of an electrode-electrolyte electrochemical impedimetric cell containing microorganisms and biofilm. Bacteria contribute to different mechanisms at the interface and bulk solution in an electrochemical cell. (B) bacteria in close contact with the surface contributing to the double-layer capacitance. (C) extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production contributing to the double-layer capacitance. (D) planktonic growth contributing to the bulk solution resistance. (E) proteins and macromolecules adsorption onto the electrode surface contribute to changes in the double-layer capacitance (Image Credit: Matt McGlennen, CBE) via PubMed.

Commercial & Private Sector, Life Support Systems, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Space Agriculture, Space Life Science, Space Stations

Mitigation And Use Of Biofilms In Space For The Benefit Of Human Space Exploration

by Keith CowingAugust 15, 2025August 15, 2025

Cyanobacteria as an example of astrobiology and biotechnology. Cyanobacteria fulfill two important roles in Earth habitability: the production of oxygen (right) and the fixation of carbon (from atmospheric carbon dioxide, left). Cyanobacteria are credited with significantly increasing global oxygen levels around 2.4 billion years ago, which shifted our planet's redox conditions and could have spurred the evolution of eukaryotes and complex life. In the modern day, their voracious consumption of atmospheric carbon dioxide can be harnessed to again shift planetary-scale processes by sequestering carbon as biomass, carbonate, or biofuel products. -- EarthRx

Astrobiology (general), Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Career Opportunities, Commercial & Private Sector, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio

A Search for Life In The Universe Advances Life on Earth

by Keith CowingAugust 15, 2025August 15, 2025

The Protein Domain Insertion Optimizer, abbreviated as ProDomino, can forecast which protein domains – like domino tiles – have to be fitted together to engineer a merged protein with new properties. | © Jan Mathony, Benedict Wolf

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life

How An Artificial Protein Emerges From Fitting Together Individual Components

by Keith CowingAugust 6, 2025

University of Mississippi

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Interstellar, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life

Chemists Synthesize Methanetetrol – A Molecule That May Point To Prebiotic Chemistry

by Keith CowingAugust 6, 2025August 6, 2025

New Study Reveals Simple Peptides Can Mimic Nature’s Protein Protection Strategy

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life

New Study Reveals Simple Peptides Can Mimic Nature’s Protein Protection Strategy

by Keith CowingAugust 6, 2025August 6, 2025

Molecular complexity growth rate per bond count between PubChem and COCONUT 2.0 molecules. Mean (solid line) and standard deviation (shaded area) of complexity scores per bond count between PubChem molecules in blue (n ≈ 100,000,000) and COCONUT 2.0 molecules in green (n ≈ 525,000) for a, Bertz, b, Böttcher, and c, MA. d, The databases had similar distribution of bond counts in their molecules. -- cs.LG

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio

Exploring Molecular Assembly As A Biosignature Using Mass Spectrometry And Machine Learning

by Keith CowingAugust 4, 2025August 4, 2025

The core (gold and black) and surface (silver) residues that were randomised Credit Albert Escobedo/Centro de Regulación Genómica

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio

One Billion-year-old Rules Of Protein Stability Revealed

by Keith CowingJuly 25, 2025