Do all modifications benefit all tRNAs?

Despite the universality of tRNA modifications, some tRNAs lacking specific modifications are subject to degradation pathways, while other tRNAs lacking the same modifications are resistant. Here, we suggest a model in which some modifications have minor, possibly redundant, roles in specific tRNAs. This model is consistent with the low specificity of some modification enzymes. Limitations of this model include the limited assays and growth conditions on which these conclusions are based, as well as the high specificity exhibited by many modification enzymes with important roles in translation. The specificity of these enzymes is often enhanced by complex substrate recognition patterns and sub-cellular compartmentalization.     

Networks for all

A report on the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory/Wellcome Trust conference on Network Biology, Hinxton, UK, 27-31 August 2008.     

Calling all patients

Disease-orientated consumer online communities radically change the way in which individuals monitor their health, but they could also create new ways of testing treatments and speed patient recruitment into clinical trials.     

Calling all paleophiles

A review of Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Vol. 1: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates and Ungulatelike Mammals, edited by Christine M. Janis, Kathleen M. Scott and Louis L. Jacobs. London, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 691 pp. $260.00, hardbound.