This is a summary of: Liu. H. et al. Viral RNA blocks circularization to evade host codon usage control. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09809-y (2025).

By combining Transformer-based sequence modeling with a novel conditional probability strategy, the approach overcomes ...

To overcome the inherent challenge of translation termination interference caused by stop codon reprogramming in mammalian cells, researchers from Peking University led by Chen Peng from College of ...

The DNA of nearly all life on Earth contains many redundancies, and scientists have long wondered whether these redundancies served a purpose or if they were just leftovers from evolutionary processes ...

Scientists trying to engineer biologic molecules with new functions have long felt limited by the 20 amino-acid building blocks. Researchers are working to develop ways of putting new building ...

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 amino acids. But certain groups of microbes have an expanded genetic code, in ...

The beauty of the DNA code is that organisms interpret it unambiguously. Each three-letter nucleotide sequence, or codon, in a gene codes for a unique amino acid that's added to a chain of amino acids ...

Researchers are adding new evidence to the emerging concept that 'silent' or synonymous mutations may have crucial consequences. Their study showed how a synonymous mutation in one gene can ...

The code of life is simple. Four genetic letters arranged in triplets—called codons—encode amino acids. These are the building blocks of proteins, the machinery that powers life. But the genetic code ...