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PL0344, only TGA functions as a stop codon -- although Dr McGowan found there are more TGA codons than expected in the ciliate's DNA, believed to compensate for the loss of the other two.

The team modified the bacterium’s tRNAs so that when it reads the original stop codon—say, in the genome of an invading virus—it installs an inappropriate amino acid that impairs the viral protein.

They swapped out the same stop codon in E. coli, but they added another layer of protection.

Many such mutations result in what’s called a premature stop codon, which essentially writes ‘The End’ in the middle of the gene’s protein-making instructions.

Second, she helped to show that the triplet of RNA nucleotides UAA represents a stop codon, where protein synthesis ends.