New Method to Decode Genome Discovered

A study by Cornell University which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes a new approach to decode the genome by understanding where genes begin to encode for polypeptides - the long chains of amino acids that make up proteins.

The new technique makes use of ribosomes, the translation machinery that decodes messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries the coding information from the DNA and translates those codes into chains of amino acids, proteins' building blocks. When translating mRNA, the ribosome at the start position has an empty space inside. Scientists used a special chemical compound to fill the empty space and freeze the ribosome. This allows the researchers to locate precisely where a gene starts to encode polypeptides. These information then help them to predict what proteins are produced from the sequence.

See the original article at http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug12/QianTIS.html.