Structural biology research and the origins of genetic coding

Structural biology research and the origins of genetic coding Charles W. Carter, Jr, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, reviews the ways that recent research in Structural Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Phylogenetics have opened the origins of genetic coding to experimental study and their important implications. Structural Biology is the study of the 3D arrangements of atoms in biological molecules. It is an immensely rich source of information that has continually transformed how we think of ourselves. Knowing a structure adds a new level of reality to an entire range of mechanistic models. The double helical structure of DNA likely brought the most fundamental overhaul of our perspective. It showed that units we had called “genes” have a structure that makes the idea of a “heritable blueprint” unmistakably self- explanatory.