Alert to biologists: Ribosomes can translate the 'untranslated region' of messenger RNA
Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 17:30
in Biology & Nature
A ribosome (gray) creates a protein by translating the genetic code within an mRNA molecule (blue). In what appears to be an unexpected challenge to a long-accepted fact of biology, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have found that ribosomes -- the molecular machines in all cells that build proteins -- can sometimes do so even within the so-called untranslated regions of the ribbons of genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA).