A comparative study of modern proteins identifies 40 fragments that may represent the observable remnants of a primordial RNA-peptide world.

Human antibodies that neutralize New World hantaviruses are promising for prevention or treatment of these high-priority emerging pathogens carried by rodents and transmitted to humans by aerosolized excreta or, in rare cases, person-to-person contact.

The first genomic view of beetle luciferase evolution indicates evolutionary independence of luciferase between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide valuable datasets which will accelerate the discovery of new biotechnological tools.

Minimal changes allow an ancestral, unfolded peptide to adopt a known fold by repetition, illuminating a possible path for the emergence of folded proteins at the origin of life.

Ribosomal proteins Rps27 (eS27) and Rps27l (eS27L) are an ancient pair of duplicated genes that encode functionally interchangeable proteins, yet have been evolutionarily retained because both copies are necessary to achieve protein expression across cell types.

The physical properties of model coacervate protocells are modulated by the activity of an RNA ligase ribozyme, which confers resistance to growth, surface wetting, and material exchange, establishing a link between RNA sequence and protocell phenotype.

A near-complete flux balance analysis model of a minimal cell demonstrates the high essentiality of its metabolic genes, agrees well with experimental essentiality data and suggests some further gene removals.

Nonenzymatic polymerization can copy templates containing all four RNA monomers, a prerequisite for the transition to the RNA world.

Pre-existing enhancers interpret T cell signaling strength in an analogue manner to direct quantitative changes in gene expression within the context of an overall digital response.

Statistics on the frequencies of pi interactions in folded protein structures enable successful prediction of intrinsically disordered protein phase separation, with clear implications for a physical understanding of cellular organization.