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Optimal alphabets for an RNA world
Citation
Gardner, PP and Holland, BR and Moulton, V and Hendy, M and Penny, D, Optimal alphabets for an RNA world, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 270, (1520) pp. 1177-1182. ISSN 0370-1662 (2003) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © The Royal Society 2003.
DOI: doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2355
Abstract
Experiments have shown that the canonical AUCG genetic alphabet is not the only possible nucleotide
alphabet. In this work we address the question ‘is the canonical alphabet optimal?’ We make the assumption
that the genetic alphabet was determined in the RNA world. Computational tools are used to infer
the RNA secondary structure (shape) from a given RNA sequence, and statistics from RNA shapes are
gathered with respect to alphabet size. Then, simulations based upon the replication and selection of
fixed-sized RNA populations are used to investigate the effect of alternative alphabets upon RNA’s ability
to step through a fitness landscape. These results show that for a low copy fidelity the canonical alphabet
is fitter than two-, six- and eight-letter alphabets. In higher copy-fidelity experiments, six-letter alphabets
outperform the four-letter alphabets, suggesting that the canonical alphabet is indeed a relic of the
RNA world.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | genetic systems; ribozymes; systematic evolution of ligands by exponential amplification (SELEX); RNA world |
Research Division: | Mathematical Sciences |
Research Group: | Applied mathematics |
Research Field: | Biological mathematics |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
UTAS Author: | Holland, BR (Professor Barbara Holland) |
ID Code: | 63085 |
Year Published: | 2003 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 12 |
Deposited By: | Mathematics |
Deposited On: | 2010-04-14 |
Last Modified: | 2010-05-05 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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