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The origin of the genetic code and origin of ideas
- Source :
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Inouye et al. (2020) use the observation that Ser is coded in the genetic code by two blocks of codons that differ on more than one base to understand some aspects of the origin of the genetic code organization. I argue instead that this observation per se cannot be used to understand any aspect of the origin of the genetic code, unless it is accompanied by other assumptions concerning in the specific case: (i) the ancestrality of some amino acids, (ii) the hypothesis that the first mRNA to be translated was poly-G, which can be translated into poly-Gly, and (iii) an evolutionary mechanism for the genetic code origin based on the duplication of tRNAs. However, both the tRNA duplication mechanism and the existence of poly-G as the first mRNA to be translated are not corroborated as mechanisms through which the genetic code would have been structured. For example, the origin of the actual mRNA should have been preceded by the evolution of a proto-mRNA which evidently already coded for more than one amino acid. Therefore, when it evolved from proto-mRNA, the mRNA should already have coded for more than one amino acid. In other words, poly-G as mRNA would most likely never have existed because the first mRNAs already had to code for more than one amino acid. On the contrary, all these assumptions would have been operational if the observations of Inouye et al. (2020) had been discussed within the coevolution theory of the origin of the genetic code, which they do not.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Statistics and Probability
Biology
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Evolution, Molecular
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Gene duplication
Code (cryptography)
Amino Acids
Codon
Coevolution
chemistry.chemical_classification
Messenger RNA
Models, Genetic
General Immunology and Microbiology
Mechanism (biology)
Applied Mathematics
General Medicine
Biological Sciences
Genetic code
Amino acid
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
Genetic Code
Evolutionary biology
Modeling and Simulation
Transfer RNA
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00225193
- Volume :
- 516
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Theoretical Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7a4988f21a7070f278052927f9364dc2