Molecular Origins of Life, Munich 2023

Sitzung

Session VII

21.06.2023, 15:30

Online

Vorsitzende der Sitzung

Session VII: Talks

• Meng Su (MRC LMB, UK)
• Claudia Höbartner (U Würzburg, DE)

Session VII: Q&A

• In diesem Block gibt es keine Vorsitzenden

71. The Origin of Genetic Code

Meng Su (MRC LMB, UK)

21.06.23, 15:30

In extant life, DNA stores genetic information while proteins carry out biochemical functions. The central dogma explains how nucleotides are translated into amino acids through tRNA. tRNA is essential in translation as it connects the codon and the cognate amino acids. However, we are still uncertain about the basis on which codon:amino acid assignments were initially made. Two hypotheses...

72. RNA catalysis beyond phosphodiester chemistry: RNA methylation catalyzed by a methyltransferase ribozyme

Claudia Höbartner (U Würzburg, DE)

21.06.23, 15:55

Modified nucleotides expand the structural and functional diversity of RNA, and many of them are highly conserved throughout evolution. Nucleobase methylation is the smallest modification installed by specialized enzymes that use nucleotide cofactors such as S-adenosylmethionine, which may be considered as “evolutionary leftovers” from an RNA world. We speculate that methylated nucleotides...