Dr. Anton S. Petrov and international teem of collaborators (including Alexey Amunts, Stockholm University, Sweden, and Alan Brown, Harvard Medical School) published a paper in the journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution on December 4, 2018. The manuscript describes the molecular basis for the variability of mitoribosomes across phylogeny. Rapidly evolving mitochondrial RNA causes structural instabilities in mitoribosomes that are patched by acquisition of pre-existing compensatory elements, thus creating opportunities for rapid and species-specific evolution.