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Some aspects of the organization and evolution of the genetic code.
In this paper, I define a measure of the relative position of each amino acid in the genetic code by means of a 21-dimensional vector describing its potential for mutation, in a single step, to each of the other amino acids, or to a chain termination codon. This measure allows us to make a systematic investigation of the type and number of the physicochemical properties of the amino acids that were involved in evolution. The polar character and size of amino acids are identified in this analysis as properties that played a leading role in the evolutionary history of the genetic code. The application of cluster analysis and discriminant analysis reveals the characteristics of the structural organization of the genetic code. Finally, I suggest the existence of a relationship between the molecular weight of the amino acids and the number of synonymous codons.
On the physical basis for ambiguity in genetic coding interactions.
We report the relative stabilities, in the form of complex lifetimes, of complexes between the tRNAs complementary, or nearly so, in their anticodons. The results show striking parallels with the genetic coding rules, including the wobble interaction and the role of modified nucleotides S2U and V (a 5-oxyacetic acid derivative of U). One important difference between the genetic code and the pairing rules in the tRNA-tRNA interaction is the stability in the latter of the short wobble pairs, which the wobble hypothesis excludes. We stress the potential of U for translational errors, and suggest a simple stereochemical basis for ribosome-mediated discrimination against short wobble pairs. Surprisingly, the stability of anticodon-anticodon complexes does not vary systematically on base sequence. Because of the close similarity to the genetic coding rules, it is tempting to speculate that the interaction between two RNA loops may have been part of the physical basis for the evolutionary origin of the genetic code, and that this mechanism may still be utilized by folding the mRNA on the ribosome into a loop similar to the anticodon loop.
Beta-turn-driven early evolution: the genetic code and biosynthetic pathways.
The physicochemical properties of beta-turns suggest their biological importance prior to the formation of the genetic code. These properties include ones potentially affecting the preference for either L- or D-amino acids. The abundance of certain amino acids in beta-turns is correlated with their assignment to a small, well-defined part of the genetic code and with their role as metabolic precursors for other amino acids. It is proposed that in the prebiotic environment, beta-turns became objects of selection that influenced the evolution of the genetic code and biosynthetic pathways for amino acids.
Genetic code redundancy and the evolutionary stability of protein secondary structure.
The genetic code has an inherent bias towards some amino acids because of the variable number of synonymous codons per amino acid. The extent to which these biases are expressed in protein secondary structure is described through the analysis of the overall amino acid compositions of the alpha-helix, beta-sheet, beta-turn and random coil segments elucidated by X-ray crystallography. Given the concept of neutral mutation in proteins, the allocation of synonyms in the genetic code appears to protect secondary structures from amino acid changes and discourages the appearance of chemically complex residues. The level of protection is similar for each structural form, despite their clear preferences for certain amino acids. The organization of the code is therefore relevant to the preservation of conformation seen in the evolution of many protein families.
How old is the genetic code? Statistical geometry of tRNA provides an answer.
The age of the molecular organization of life as expressed in the genetic code can be estimated from experimental data. Comparative sequence analysis of transfer RNA by the method of statistical geometry in sequence space suggests that about one-third of the present transfer RNA sequence divergence was present at the urkingdom level about the time when archaebacteria separated from eubacteria. It is concluded that the genetic code is not older than, but almost as old as our planet. While this result may not be unexpected, it was not clear until now that interpretable data exist that permit inferences about such early stages of life as the establishment of the genetic code.
The genetic code in mitochondria and chloroplasts.
The universal genetic code is used without changes in chloroplasts and in mitochondria of green plants. Non-plant mitochondria use codes that include changes from the universal code. Chloroplasts use 31 anticodons in translating the code; a number smaller than that used by bacteria, because chloroplasts have eliminated 10 CNN anticodons that are found in bacteria. Green plant mitochondria (mt) obtain some tRNAs from the cytosol, and genes for some other tRNAs have been acquired from chloroplast DNA. The code in non-plant mt differs from the universal code in the following usages found in various organisms: UGA for Trp, AUA for Met, AGR for Ser and stop, AAA for Asn, CUN for Thr, and possibly UAA for Tyr. CGN codons are not used by Torulopsis yeast mt. Non-plant mt, e.g. in vertebrates, may use a minimum of 22 anticodons for complete translation of mRNA sequences. The following possible causes are regarded as contributing to changes in the non-plant mt: directional mutation pressure, genomic economization, changes in charging specificity of tRNAs, loss of release factor RF2, changes in RF1, changes in anticodons, loss of lysidine-forming enzyme system, and disappearance of codons from coding sequences.
A model for the coevolution of the genetic code and the process of protein synthesis: Review and assessment.
The contemporary genetic code and the process of protein biosynthesis most assuredly evolved from a simpler code and process. We believe that there was obligatory coevolution of the two and that the earlier code and process must have involved a more direct linkage between the amino acids and the information macromolecule. We propose that an early form of translating existed in which amino acids were attached directly to the 'messenger' RNA along the backbone as 2'OH aminoacyl esters. These esters then condensed with each other on the RNA backbone yielding a peptide covalently attached to the RNA, without the use of tRNA's and ribosomes. THis presentation is concerned with experimental data which indicate that such a simple translation system is possible and must have involved the following steps: (1) formation of the aminoacyl adenylate anhydride, (2) transfer of the amino acid from the adenylate to immidazole, (3) transfer of the amino acid from imidazole to 2'OH groups along the backbone of RNAs, (4) condensation of the amino acids to yield peptides. Steps (1)-(3) have been confirmed in chemical systems. Our preliminary evidence indicates step (4) is also possible. The aminoacylation of polyribonucleotides and the subsequent formation of peptides is a dynamic and experimentally accessible system for studying genetic coding specfities and our present studies are now concentrated on step (4), looking for such specifities.
A hardware interpretation of the evolution of the genetic code.
A quantitative rationale for the evolution of the genetic code is developed considering the principle of minimal hardware. This principle defines an optimal code as one that minimizes for a given amount of information encoded, the product of the number of physical devices used by the average complexity of each device. By identifying the number of different amino acids, number of nucleotide positions per codon and number of base types that can occupy each such position with, respectively, the amount of information, number of devices and the complexity, we show that optimal codes occur for 3, 7 and 20 amino acids with codons having a single, two and three base positions per codon, respectively. The advantage of a code of exactly 4 symbols is deduced, as well as a plausible evolutionary pathway from a code of doublets to triplets. The present day code of 20 amino acids encoded by 64 codons is shown to be the most optimal in an absolute sense. Using a tetraplet code further evolution to a code in which there would be 55 amino acids is in principle possible, but such a code would deviate slightly more than the present day code from the minimal hardware configuration. The change from a triplet code to a tetraplet code would occur at about 32 amino acids. Our conclusions are independent of, but consistent with, the observed physico-chemical properties of the amino acids and codon structures. These correlations could have evolved within the constrains imposed by the minimal hardware principle.
The extension reached by the minimization of the polarity distances during the evolution of the genetic code.
The level reached by the optimization of the polarity distances during the evolution of the genetic code was investigated. The results, although not conclusive, indicate that this optimization level is higher than the data reported in the literature. The results seem compatible with the reaching of an evolutionary minimum, with respect to the optimization of the polarity distances, by the genetic code during its formation.
The evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, the biosynthetic pathways of amino acids and the genetic code.
In this paper the partition metric is used to compare binary trees deriving from (i) the study of the evolutionary relationships between aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, (ii) the physicochemical properties of amino acids and (iii) the biosynthetic relationships between amino acids. If the tree defining the evolutionary relationships between aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases is assumed to be a manifestation of the mechanism that originated the organization of the genetic code, then the results appear to indicate the following: the hypothesis that regards the genetic code as a map of the biosynthetic relationships between amino acids seems to explain the organization of the genetic code, at least as plausibly as the hypotheses that consider the physicochemical properties of amino acids as the main adaptive theme that lead to the structuring of the code.
The distribution of amino acids in the genetic code.
By introducing a mutational deterioration function MD and a principle of approximate minimum of the function, we have deduced the distribution of amino acids in genetic code, which includes the degeneracy rule of codons, the global extreme of genetic code from codon interactions and the hydrophobicity domain of the prevalent (standard) code.
Comparative rates of esterification of 5'-AMP with hydrophobic amino acids: relevance to the genetic-code assignments.
We have continued our program aimed at understanding the origin and evolution of the genetic code and the process of protein synthesis by comparing the rates of esterification of 5'-AMP by a series of hydrophobic N-acetylamino acids. The reaction clearly shows differences in reaction rate (AcPhe greater than AcLeu greater than AcVal greater than AcIle) among the amino acids having A as middle letter of their anticodons. However, there were no significant differences in reaction rate between AcLeu, AcNorleu, and Ac-alpha-aminobutyric acid, and AcGly reacted faster than all of these and AcPhe. Consequently, this simple reaction with AMP can distinguish only among those amino acids that actually have A as the middle anticodonic nucleotide. The relevance of these studies to the origins of the process of protein synthesis and of the genetic code is discussed in conjunction with results from other studies of a similar nature.
Amino acid composition of proteins: Selection against the genetic code.
Distribution of amino acids in 68 representative proteins is compared with their distribution among 61 codons of the genetic code. Average amounts of lysine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and alanine are above the levels anticipated from the genetic code, and arginine, serine, leucine, cysteine, proline, and histidine are below such levels. Arginine plus lysine account for 11.0 percent of codons and aspartic acid plus glutamic acid account for 11.3 percent; thus the average charge is roughly neutral.
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase families and their significance to the origin of the genetic code.
A correlation of various aspects of the protein structures and substrate and mechanistic specificities of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases has led to the identification of at least one family of enzymes probably derived from a common ancestral synthetase. While strong correlations exist only in one part of the array of 64 codons comprising the Genetic Code, this itself may be interpreted as a meaningful pattern, most consistent with a development of the present code from earlier codes containing fewer amino acids and fewer available codons. Specifically, strong correlations in the enzymes whose cognate tRNAs respond to codons containing a central pyrimidine, including the enzyme family of Ile-, Phe-, Val-, Met-, and Leu-tRNA synthetases, suggests that these enzymes evolved last, and that, therefore, an earlier version of the Genetic Code was comprised solely of codons containing a central purine. It is suggested that further study of the historical interrelationships of these enzymes could lead to a fairly detailed picture of how the Genetic Code developed.
Compliance of genetic code with base-composition deflecting pressure.
Gene DNAs of different organisms show a wide variation in their G+C content as much as 20% to 80%. This variation has been regarded as the result of the compliance of the genetic code with the base-composition-deflecting mutational pressure. To make possible a quantitative discussion of this genetic code's elasticity, we made a statistical study of the G+C frequency at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions of codons: 4.5 x 10(6) codons in 11,981 protein coding regions in the DNA data base were analyzed. The data were examined quantitatively by using a species-independent universal equation which describes the base frequencies at the three codon sites in terms of the constraint parameters characteristic of the sites and an intersite interaction. By a best fitting procedure between theoretical curves and data points, the constraint parameters and the characteristic G+C contents to which the 1st and the 2nd site base compositions are bound were determined. The base substituting mutation of the coding sequence under the base-composition-deflecting pressure is divided into following three stages of the different compliance from the elastic one to the rigid: 1) the 3rd position of codons change by synonymous substitution; 2) the 1st and then 2nd positions change accompanying amino acid replacement; and 3) in the organisms exposed under an extremely high base composition deflecting pressure, the codon table is forced to be altered. The compliance parameters were derived quantitatively for the first two stages. In conclusion, a simultaneous analysis of data from organisms as divers as virus and man discovered that there is a set of constraints common to species, which governs the frequency of codon bases, and it can be described by a universal equation.
Evolution of a genetic code simulated with the computer.
A simple selforganizing model system of molecules is considered and it is demonstrated by a computer simulation, that a genetic code of 16 elements (aminoacids) can gradually be formed by such a system in the course of many generations. By a number of rare chance events, each suppressing other events of equal a priori probability, a single code results out of an immense number of possible codes of the same a priori probability. The result is discussed in relation to the uniqueness of the genetic code in living systems. The computer simulation emphasizes a particular step in a model pathway discussed elsewhere consisting of many assumed physicochemical steps leading to a genetic apparatus.
The origin of the genetic code.
A new approach to the origin of the genetic code is proposed based on some regularities in the nucleotide distribution pattern of the code. The relative amounts of various amino acids in primitive proteins were possibly different from those in organisms living today. The primordial ratio was supposed to shift to the modern one guided by the action of primitive nucleotides. Each primitive tRNA had a discriminator site and, distinguished from it, an anticodon site. It also postulated that primordially each amino acid could correspond to a wide variety of codons. During the course of the evolutionary change, a selective mechanism worked among the protobionts so that less frequent nucleotides became associated with more abundant amino acids in the primordial conditions,thus finally leading to the present codon catalogue.