'Unheard of in structural biology': New enzyme models reveal disease insights
When nucleic acids like DNA or RNA build up in a cell's cytoplasm, it sets off an alarm call for the immune system. Enzymes usually clear these nucleic acids before they cause an issue, but when these enzymes don't work and the immune system gets called in, it can lead to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Molecular cooperation at the threshold of life
Protein-like aggregates known as amyloids can bind to molecules of genetic material. It is possible that these two types of molecules stabilized each other during the development of life—and that this might even have paved the way for the genetic code.
Discovery of novel primitive xeno nucleic acids as alternative genetic polymers adds piece to origin of life puzzle
The chemical origin of life on Earth is a puzzle that scientists have been trying to piece together for decades. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain how life came to be and what chemical and environmental factors on early Earth could have led to it. A step required in a number of these hypotheses involves the abiotic synthesis of genetic polymers—materials made up of a sequence of repeating chemical units with the ability to store and pass down information through base-pairing interactions.
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