Resumen

DINKOVA, Tzvetanka D.  y  SANCHEZ DE JIMENEZ, Estela. The ribosome: what we learned from its structure. Educ. quím [online]. 2010, vol.21, n.1, pp.93-95. ISSN 0187-893X.

The Darwin evolution theory published 150 years ago stated:"All organism features are hereditary and subject to random changes; those changes allowing a greater chance for the organism to survive will be carried out in further generations". The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their contribution with the third piece of evidence showing how actually the Darwin theory functions at the atomic level. The first piece contributed in the same puzzle was one of the most famous Nobel prizes in history: the one awarded in 1962 to Francis Crick, James Watson y Maurice Wilkins for the atomic model of ADN double helix. The second one was the 2006 Nobel Prize awarded to Roger Kornberg for solving the structure of ARN polymerase and how it copies the information from ADN to ARN. The third one, awarded this year to Ada Yonath, Thomas Steitz and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan for the high resolution crystal structure of the ribosome - one of the most complex cellular machineries - completes the flux of genetic information, showing us how the language codified in ADN/ARN is converted to proteins that precisely control the correct cell functioning.

Palabras llave : Nobel Prize; ribosome; structure; translation; antibiotics.

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