Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.

The genetic code shapes the genetic repository. Its origin has puzzled molecular scientists for over half a century and remains a long-standing mystery. Here we show that the origin of the genetic code is tightly coupled to the history of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase enzymes and their interactions with...

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Autores principales: Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, Minglei Wang, Derek Caetano-Anollés
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Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/b20d4aa6222746e194071a9541effddd
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:b20d4aa6222746e194071a9541effddd2021-11-18T08:58:34ZStructural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0072225https://doaj.org/article/b20d4aa6222746e194071a9541effddd2013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23991065/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The genetic code shapes the genetic repository. Its origin has puzzled molecular scientists for over half a century and remains a long-standing mystery. Here we show that the origin of the genetic code is tightly coupled to the history of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase enzymes and their interactions with tRNA. A timeline of evolutionary appearance of protein domain families derived from a structural census in hundreds of genomes reveals the early emergence of the 'operational' RNA code and the late implementation of the standard genetic code. The emergence of codon specificities and amino acid charging involved tight coevolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and tRNA structures as well as episodes of structural recruitment. Remarkably, amino acid and dipeptide compositions of single-domain proteins appearing before the standard code suggest archaic synthetases with structures homologous to catalytic domains of tyrosyl-tRNA and seryl-tRNA synthetases were capable of peptide bond formation and aminoacylation. Results reveal that genetics arose through coevolutionary interactions between polypeptides and nucleic acid cofactors as an exacting mechanism that favored flexibility and folding of the emergent proteins. These enhancements of phenotypic robustness were likely internalized into the emerging genetic system with the early rise of modern protein structure.Gustavo Caetano-AnollésMinglei WangDerek Caetano-AnollésPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 8, p e72225 (2013)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
Minglei Wang
Derek Caetano-Anollés
Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
description The genetic code shapes the genetic repository. Its origin has puzzled molecular scientists for over half a century and remains a long-standing mystery. Here we show that the origin of the genetic code is tightly coupled to the history of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase enzymes and their interactions with tRNA. A timeline of evolutionary appearance of protein domain families derived from a structural census in hundreds of genomes reveals the early emergence of the 'operational' RNA code and the late implementation of the standard genetic code. The emergence of codon specificities and amino acid charging involved tight coevolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and tRNA structures as well as episodes of structural recruitment. Remarkably, amino acid and dipeptide compositions of single-domain proteins appearing before the standard code suggest archaic synthetases with structures homologous to catalytic domains of tyrosyl-tRNA and seryl-tRNA synthetases were capable of peptide bond formation and aminoacylation. Results reveal that genetics arose through coevolutionary interactions between polypeptides and nucleic acid cofactors as an exacting mechanism that favored flexibility and folding of the emergent proteins. These enhancements of phenotypic robustness were likely internalized into the emerging genetic system with the early rise of modern protein structure.
format article
author Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
Minglei Wang
Derek Caetano-Anollés
author_facet Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
Minglei Wang
Derek Caetano-Anollés
author_sort Gustavo Caetano-Anollés
title Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
title_short Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
title_full Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
title_fullStr Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
title_full_unstemmed Structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
title_sort structural phylogenomics retrodicts the origin of the genetic code and uncovers the evolutionary impact of protein flexibility.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2013
url https://doaj.org/article/b20d4aa6222746e194071a9541effddd
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AT mingleiwang structuralphylogenomicsretrodictstheoriginofthegeneticcodeanduncoverstheevolutionaryimpactofproteinflexibility
AT derekcaetanoanolles structuralphylogenomicsretrodictstheoriginofthegeneticcodeanduncoverstheevolutionaryimpactofproteinflexibility
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