Replicating nanomachines

[Dzana]

This gorgeous bacterial polysome was recently published in Cell. You can think of it as a 9-head programmable nanofabricator.

The ribosome reads the digital code of mRNA and manufactures most of what we care about in our bodies from a sequential concatenation of amino acids into proteins. The ribosome is a wonderful existence proof of the power and robustness of molecular machines. It is roughly 20nm on a side and consists of only 99 thousand atoms.

The numbered ribosomes are shown tightly bound to a single mRNA strand at the core, with each mRNA making its own protein. The two major subunits of each ribosome are blue and yellow. The nascent protein chains being cranked out in close proximity to each other are green and red.

The researchers conclude: “this arrangement maximizes the distance between nascent chains on adjacent ribosomes, thereby reducing the probability of intermolecular interactions that would give rise to aggregation and limit productive folding.”

To me it looks like hyperbolic crochet. (I’ll post a comparison image below)

…a mesmerizing image to behold during the Synthetic Genomics board meeting today. Another example of perceiving beauty in the accumulated complexity of simple iterative algorithms… like a 3D cellular automata from Wolfram or a hyperbolic coral reef

Replicating Nanomachines on Flickr - Photo Sharing! - 93k

[jonsi]

Comprendo! (I understand)

Too bad nanomachines are too small to be detected by anyone trying to find them. That's why the FDA approved deli meat preservatives containing nano-tech! They can't detect it anyways!

http://www.wellnesswest.ca/dmdoc/Tec...20Mar%2009.pdf

The best way to avoid nanotechnology is to stick to organic foods. I shy away from make-up/lotions that claims to reverse aging. Clothing fibers are filled with nanos, pay attention to where your clothing. bedding, etc are made. China isn't making their clothes from natural fibers! micro-fibers are the first that started "biting" me. Look at your food and clothing labels.

I still say that pharmaceutical medicine makes us "Morgies" sicker in the long run.

Of course, we have no control over the air we breathe: Aerosol Crimes

In the white light,
~jonsi

[Sadsack]

Dzana -

Something should be clarified here. Although this is "nanoscience" it is not nanotechnology as in "man made".

What is depicted and described is a natural process, not one created by man. Not to say that similar processes aren't possibly being made by nanotechnology...

The article upon which this was based: Cell - The Native 3D Organization of Bacterial Polysomes



The Native 3D Organization of Bacterial Polysomes

Florian Brandt1, 2, Stephanie A. Etchells2, Julio O. Ortiz1, Adrian H. Elcock4, F. Ulrich Hartl2, 3, , and Wolfgang Baumeister1, 3,
,
1 Department of Molecular Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, Martinsried 82152, Germany
2 Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18, Martinsried 82152, Germany
3 Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Butenandtstr. 5-13, München 81377, Germany
4 Department of Biochemistry, University of Iowa, 4-530 Bowen Science Building, 51 Newton Road, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Summary

• Recent advances have led to insights into the structure of the bacterial ribosome, but little is known about the 3D organization of ribosomes in the context of translating polysomes. We employed cryoelectron tomography and a template-matching approach to map 70S ribosomes in vitrified bacterial translation extracts and in lysates of active E. coli spheroplasts. In these preparations, polysomal arrangements were observed in which neighboring ribosomes are densely packed and exhibit preferred orientations. Analysis of characteristic examples of polysomes reveals a staggered or pseudohelical organization of ribosomes along the mRNA trace, with the transcript being sequestered on the inside, the tRNA entrance sites being accessible, and the polypeptide exit sites facing the cytosol. Modeling of elongating nascent polypeptide chains suggests that this arrangement maximizes the distance between nascent chains on adjacent ribosomes, thereby reducing the probability of intermolecular interactions that would give rise to aggregation and limit productive folding.

SS