Folic Acid Saves the Day

In baking, some ingredients are simply not optional—forget the baking powder, forget the muffins. Just as baking powder is essential for some recipes, helper molecules called cofactors are necessary ingredients for many biochemical reactions. 

Folic acid does this by improving the fit between an enzyme and its cofactor. The enzyme in this case is known shorthand as MTHFR, and the cofactor, a molecule called FAD, is also vitamin-derived (from vitamin B2) and is essential for converting homocysteine to methionine. Martha Ludwig and Rowena Matthews, both of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, determined that by locking FAD onto MTHFR, folic acid performs this protective role in the body. 

Like a ship nestling into its berth, many proteins require the help of one or more other proteins to perform their jobs well. However, unlike ships, 

On ribosomes, transfer RNA (tRNA) helps convert mRNA into protein. 

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