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POLYNUCLEOTIDE EVOLUTION,
HYPERCYCLES AND THE ORIGIN OF
THE GENETIC CODE
P Schuster
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
143
144 P. Schuster
Minus strand
5'pppGGGGAACCCCCCUUCGGGGGU~ cccr6~UUCCGGGGGGUC[~C" ] 3'
[MECHANISMS CREATINGI
I'~NIFORMITYI • I vAR'A"'uTY I
~" ~ (GENEDUPLICATION)
(3)CO-OPERATION [&)RECOMBtNATION
(HYPERCYCLES) (COMPARTMENTS)
Fig. 2. M e c h a n i s m s c r e a t i n g u n i f o r m i t y and v a r i a t i o n in e v o l v i n g
populations.
I A NALYSER I
Q/I-REPLI CASE
tO t2 GTP. ATP
CTP,UTP
At ~l At At At ....... • 1 EXCESS
t, to . At
t2 to • 2at
t3 : tO • 3 ~
t~ : t o • /.At
ts : t o • sat
A D A P T I V E AND R A N D O M S E L E C T I O N
P r o v i d e d several c o n d i t i o n s are f u l f i l l e d we o b s e r v e s e l e c t i o n in an e n s e m b l e
of r e p l i c a t i n g p o l y n u c l e o t i d e s /16/. For the p u r p o s e of i l l u s t r a t i o n we
assume the f o l l o w i n g m e c h a n i s m s of r e p l i c a t i o n and d e g r a d a t i o n of RNA m o l e -
cules:
fk
(A)+Ik~ * 2I k (I)
f,
k
dk
Ik4 * (B) (2)
DE6RADATION THROUGH
ReARRANGENeNTS
VIRAL-RNA ]
v=/.500 ~ v-300-500
GTP ATP.CTP.UTP
SMALL OLIGO-NUCLEOTIDES?
v =2.3.,'.....
Fig. 4. The results of e v o l u t i o n a r y o p t i m i z a t i o n in the test tube
(schematically)
tl--d I
"--------""--e
® J
'.-'. i I Jt
l Ill . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
t.- 1. L i
I ,O~.T~ Ii,'T,O,, I l
TOTAL RATE 0~ R N & ' ~ Y N T I S ~ I " i , l
! .,~ ,,lli-II,i --.,~ ~A X
I EV~UT~O~RV a"Ti,,ZAT,O.I
f--d L
f--d e
NFUTI#AL FVoLurIox ILATF XHASF;
I
f--d I
f~l I
'I ................................
f~d .5 X, t; I,
I RAM00M ~ELECTJDNI
A M O D E L FOR EARLY E V O L U T I O N
[ OPTIMIZATIONOF
INDIVIDUALIZATIONI
It,) |REPLICATION RATES PROTOCELLS I
"COMPARTMENTS]OF COMPARTMENTS
A P R I M I T I V E G E N E T I C CODE
REFERENCES
11. M.Sumper and R.Luce, Evidence for :'de novo" production of self-replica-
ting and environmentally adapted RNA structures by bacteriophage QB
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15. D.Hill and T.Blumenthal, Does QB replicase synthesize RNA in the absence
of template?, Nature 301, 350-352 (1983)
18. P.Schuster and K.Sigmund, Random selection and the neutral theory -
sources of stochasticity in replication, in: Stochastic Phenomena and
Chaotic Behaviour in Complex Systems, ed. P.Schuster, Springer Verlag
Berlin 1984, p.186
19. M. Kimura, ed., Molecular Evolution~ Protein Po!~nnorphism and the Neutral
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33. G.W.R.Walker, Nucleotide-binding site data and the origin of the genetic
code, BioSystems 9, 139 (1977)