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Dieter Soll

 

Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry; Microbiology; Computational Biology & Bioinformatics

Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
Professor of Chemistry

Education

Ph.D. Stuttgart University, Germany 1962

Research Interests

Our major interests focus on the mechanism and evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis and the expansion of the genetic code. Currently twenty-two cotranslationally inserted amino acids (including selenocysteine and pyrrolysine) are known to occur in proteins. The synthesis of this set of amino-acyl-tRNAs is very diverse in nature, relying on direct acylation of tRNAs by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (as predicted by Crick’s adaptor hypothesis) and also on recently discovered, novel mechanisms of pre-translational tRNA-dependent amino acid modification. The latter process is related to tRNA-dependent amino acid biosynthesis (e.g., asparagine and cysteine), the sole route to these amino acids in many bacteria and archaea. These processes also enable us to synthesize proteins containing unusual amino acid (e.g., phosphoserine and pyrrolysine).

Links

• Soll Homepage

Recent Publications

• Yuan, J., et al. (2006). RNA-dependent conversion of hosphoserine forms selenocysteine in eukaryotes and archaea. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 103:18923-18927.
• Sauerwald, A., et al. (2005). RNA-dependent cysteine biosynthesis in archaea. Science 307:1969-1972.

Contact

E-mail
dieter.soll@yale.edu