January 21, 2021
Today in Nature Communications, Alex and Xiongwen report that the human RPL36 gene doesn’t just encode a ribosomal protein. It is a bicistronic gene that also encodes a remarkable, highly phosphorylated inhibitor of lipid transporter TMEM24 - and, downstream of phosphatidylinositol transport, of mTOR signaling and cell growth. Thanks to our collaborators Krit and Thitima in Tao Uttamapinant’s lab for showing the power of unnatural amino acid mutagenesis for small protein imaging! Learn all about alt-RPL36 here!