New Amino Acid Discovered

EricMargel writes: "As published in Science, researchers at the Ohio State University claim to have discovered the 22nd known amino acid, pyrrolysine, the first discovered since 1986." I hope rice and beans are still sufficient to get all the needed amino acids.

Comments

Re:These scientists need to work on...

[BadDoggie]

Umm.. hello?

Beano is the magic pill. Alpha-galactose. True, it's an enzyme, not a protein, but a protein isn't going to stop farts, which are mainly caused by sugars we can't digest but which the bugs in our intestines can.

woof.

Importance of this discovery?

[donnacha]

The very fact that this amino acid was overlooked for so long suggests that it's direct importance to our lives is negligible; it's relevance is more about filling the final gaps in an overall picture.

In the article, Krzycki suggests that it also alters the way we should approach genetics:

"This shows us that the genetic code, and therefore, evolution is much more plastic than people might have thought."

"I think this work will cause researchers to start looking at genetic sequences that they might have thought at first were simply aberrations," he said. "Instead, they might signal discoveries like ours."

genetic code non-universal

[BlueboyX]

Oddities in the genetic codes of different species have been observed before. While all known life froms have very similar genetic codes (this codon yields that amino acid) there have been some life forms that are exceptions. Several kinds of bacteria express a different amino acid for a specific codon than, say, a human cell would.

So finding a bacteria like what this artical describes is only a mild suprise.

Great detective work though. Alot of people would have decided it was alot easier to call this an abberation than to spend ~2 years finding out what was really going on.