Researchers see history of life in the structure of transfer RNA

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All tRNAs assemble themselves into a shape that if flattened resembles a cloverleaf. Patterns in these structures give clues to early evolutionary history. The red areas of the molecule pictured above are the most ancient. Credit: Image courtesy of G ...
All tRNAs assemble themselves into a shape that, if flattened, resembles a cloverleaf. Patterns in these structures give clues to early evolutionary history. The red areas of the molecule pictured above are the most ancient. Credit: Image courtesy of Gustavo Caetano-Anollés

Transfer RNA is an ancient molecule, central to every task a cell performs and thus essential to all life. A new study from the University of Illinois indicates that it is also a great historian, preserving some of the earliest and most profound events of the evolutionary past in its structure.


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