The Genetic Translational system Temple F. Smith BioMedical Engineering Boston University

Abstract

The modern genetic translation system is a fundamental if not the defining characteristic of terrestrial Life.  Here the genetic information is translated into proteins which carry out most metabolic and signaling functions in the cell as well as provide much of the cellular structural integrity.  The details of this translational system’s origins are largely hidden. This is in large part due to the fact that once fully functional, earlier forms would have been rapidly replace.  Evolution is a rather brutal diver of life’s innovations quickly replacing outdated forms.  And yet, once something works it is clearly more efficient to build and expand upon it, than to reinvent!  Thus within the extant translational systems components are clearly both shadows and remnants of the earliest forms.   In any study aimed at such evolutionary depth,  an expanded understanding of the system’s details is also obtained, including insight into the effects of mutations.  Which in turn has potential implications for medical genetic and disease understanding.