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GENETIC CODE EXPANSION

Ribosomes read new languages

Nature Chemical Biology volume 16, pages 486–488 (2020)Cite this article

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Using new letters of DNA to encode information promises to expand the genetic code in a transformative way. A new semisynthetic organism has been created that uses 67 codons for protein biosynthesis, with three new codons based on unnatural nucleotides.

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Fig. 1: Unnatural base pairs expand the genetic code to facilitate synthesis of proteins with multiple, distinct non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Michael C. Jewett & Michael J. Hammerling

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  1. Michael C. Jewett
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  2. Michael J. Hammerling
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Correspondence to Michael C. Jewett.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Jewett, M.C., Hammerling, M.J. Ribosomes read new languages. Nat Chem Biol 16, 486–488 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-0522-0

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