Jacob, The idea is enticing, but don't forget that there are multiple degenerate codons for a given amino acid. Once the protein is synthesized, the specific codon information is lost.
I think that's a fundamental problem. Keep the ideas coming, Mike Thompson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jacob Keller" <j-kell...@fsm.northwestern.edu> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Monday, September 6, 2010 6:36:14 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [ccp4bb] Reverse Translatase Dear Crystallographers, does anyone know of any conceptual reason why a reverse translatase enzyme (protein-->nucleic acid) could not exist? I can think of so many things for which such an enzyme would be helpful, both to cells and to scientists...! Unless there is something I am missing, it would seem to me conceptually almost impossible that it *not* exist. Best Regards, Jacob Keller ******************************************* Jacob Pearson Keller Northwestern University Medical Scientist Training Program Dallos Laboratory F. Searle 1-240 2240 Campus Drive Evanston IL 60208 lab: 847.491.2438 cel: 773.608.9185 email: j-kell...@northwestern.edu ******************************************* -- Michael C. Thompson Graduate Student Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Division Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry University of California, Los Angeles mi...@chem.ucla.edu
