How to interfere with protein production?
Cells are bags full of proteins and all proteins are formed by large chains of amino acids. Cells continually make these molecules through a highly complex system. One of the components involved in protein production, a process in which the Gene Translation Lab is specialized, is transfer RNA (tRNA). The function of tRNA is to transport the protein synthesis machinery and the precise amino acids required for each protein under construction. Geslain designed new tRNAs, very similar to natural ones, but that place erroneous amino acids into the protein sequences under construction. “When these tRNAs are introduced, the cells starts to make and accumulate defective proteins and it reacts in response. Given that the cell still conserves the healthy proteins present before the introduction of our tRNA, we can observe the extent to which the healthy part can correct the problem. We can also see when these defects are no longer correctible and how and when cells enter the suicide programme.”
