Mystery Solved: Scientist Discover How 22nd Amino Acid is Formed

Ohio State University scientist recently discovered how the 22nd amino acid is formed by the cells. They used mass spectometry experiments to find that this amino acid, pyrrolysine, is made by the enzymatic reaction of 2 lysine molecules. The reason why this was such a difficult task is due to the rarity of pyrrolysine, found only in a dozen or so organisms, more specifically archeacialproteins and methane-producing microbes.

Pyrrolosine Molecular Configuration -



    The reason why this is such an important discovery is now scientist can mass produce synthetic versions of this amino acid to manipulate proteins for biomedical research. This finding could explore how genetic codes evolved from amino acids originating from a common precursor that have similar codon assignments. This is known as the co-evolutionary theory. Remember that codons the 3 letter sequence that DNA uses to identify the bases that code for specific amino acids to form proteins. 

     I feel that understanding  the origins and the evolutions of amino acids that are "ordered" by DNA is extremly important in the biomedical sense. These discoveries can have a tremendous impact on understanding genetics and genetic disorders, and hopefully being able to correct problems that previously had no answer. To me understanding the past is the gateway for correcting flaws in the future.