Scientists Map Four Billion Years Of Ribosomal Evolution

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The ribosome provides a site for protein synthesis in all living cells, but scientists have now tracked its development back to a time that predates biology. Vossman via Wikimedia Commons

Funded by NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has retraced the development of the ribosome back almost four billion years, unlocking the chronology of its evolution from its primordial form to its present structure. The ribosome provides a site for protein synthesis in all living cells, and is therefore crucial for the existence of life.