Importance of Selenium in the Opening Stages of Protein SynthesisAn international team of researchers with members from Freie Universität Berlin has made an important contribution to our understanding of the essential trace element selenium. The team was able to demonstrate how selenocysteine is incorporated into the proteins of eukaryotes. Using a specialized cryo-electron microscope, the researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA, succeeded in visualizing the first steps in selenoprotein synthesis.
