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Updated: May 23, 2026

Optical Tweezers to Study RNA-Protein Interactions in Translation Regulation
Published on: February 12, 2022
The concept of RNA-assisted protein folding: the role of tRNA
1Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. jan.biro@att.net
Abstract:
We suggest that tRNA actively participates in the transfer of 3D information from mRNA to peptides--in addition to its well-known, "classical" role of translating the 3-letter RNA codes into the one letter protein code. The tRNA molecule displays a series of thermodynamically favored configurations during translation, a movement which places the codon and coded amino acids in proximity to each other and make physical contact between some amino acids and their codons possible. This specific codon-amino acid interaction of some selected amino acids is necessary for the transfer of spatial information from mRNA to coded proteins, and is known as RNA-assisted protein folding.
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