Engineering new protein functionalities through the addition of noncoded amino acids is a major biotechnological endeavor that needs to overcome the natural firewalls that prevent misincorporation during protein synthesis. This field is in constant evolution driven by the discovery or design of new tools, many of which are based on archeal biology. In a recent article published in JBC, one such tool is characterized and its evolution studied, revealing unexpected details regarding the emergence of the universal genetic code machinery.

中文翻译：

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古菌 tRNA 遇上生物技术：从疫苗到遗传密码扩展

通过添加非编码氨基酸来设计新的蛋白质功能是一项重大的生物技术努力，需要克服防止蛋白质合成过程中错误掺入的天然防火墙。该领域在新工具的发现或设计的推动下不断发展，其中许多工具都基于考古生物学。在最近发表在JBC上的一篇文章中，描述了一种这样的工具并研究了它的进化，揭示了有关通用遗传密码机制出现的意想不到的细节。