Queuine: A Microbial Key to Translation Accuracy
A translator who starts mixing up words with age turns a precise document into nonsense. In the cell, that translator is transfer RNA: it carries amino acids to the ribosome, where protein is assembled. An error in a single "word" can make a protein useless or harmful. Researchers have found that in mammals a rare chemical mark on this RNA, the manQ modification, disappears with age.