Two new studies reveal in unprecedented detail how the ribosome interacts with other molecules to assemble new proteins and guide them toward their destination in biological cells. The studies used molecular dynamics flexible fitting (MDFF) to examine the interaction of the ribosome with two prominent molecular partners.

For RNA, the gateway to a productive life outside the nucleus is the nuclear pore complex, an amalgamation of 30 kinds of proteins that regulates all traffic passing through the nuclear membrane.
New research from Rockefeller University shows that one of these proteins magnetically couples with a special molecule – a helicase – to form a [...]

The enzyme machine that translates a cell’s DNA code into the proteins of life is nothing if not an editorial perfectionist.
Johns Hopkins researchers, reporting this week in Nature, have discovered a new “proofreading step” during which the suite of translational tools called the ribosome recognizes errors, just after making them, and definitively responds by hitting [...]

In higher organisms, the genetic material is confined and protected in the cell nucleus. In order for a healthy cell to function, the DNA must send manufacturing orders through the double membrane of the nucleus and into the cell’s cytoplasm, where the protein production factories are and where most cellular functions are carried out. The [...]