ReviewMicrobiological reviews1992
Recent evidence for evolution of the genetic code.
Review in Microbiological reviews, 1992. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 251 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
251 citing papers in PubMed, 516 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Stop codon reassignment to tryptophan in members of the bacterial phylumMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Resurrecting tRNAs of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (Commonote) Toward Rebuilding the Ancient Translation System.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- Assembly and Comparative Analysis of Five Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of theInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- The complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Frequent occurrence and predicted functions of tRNAs with 4-base-pair anticodon stems in bacteria: extended superwobble hypothesis.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Folding and knotting of biotic and prebiotic amino acid sequences through reverse evolution.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- The complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2025Article
- Complete mitochondrial genome ofMicrobiology resource announcements · 2025Article
- Marked Genome Reduction Driven by a Parasitic Lifestyle: Two Complete Genomes of Endosymbiotic Bacteria Possibly Hosted by a Dinoflagellate.Microbes and environments · 2025Article
- Mitochondrial RNA in Inflammation.International journal of biological sciences · 2025Review
- 50 Years of Organoselenium Chemistry, Biochemistry and Reactivity: Mechanistic Understanding, Successful and Controversial Stories.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2024Review
- AARS Online: A collaborative database on the structure, function, and evolution of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases.IUBMB life · 2024Article
191 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The genetic code, formerly thought to be frozen, is now known to be in a state of evolution. This was first shown in 1979 by Barrell et al. (G. Barrell, A. T. Bankier, and J. Drouin, Nature [London] 282:189-194, 1979), who found that the universal codons AUA (isoleucine) and UGA (stop) coded for methionine and tryptophan, respectively, in human mitochondria. Subsequent studies have shown that UGA codes for tryptophan in Mycoplasma spp. and in all nonplant mitochondria that have been examined. Universal stop codons UAA and UAG code for glutamine in ciliated protozoa (except Euplotes octacarinatus) and in a green alga, Acetabularia. E. octacarinatus uses UAA for stop and UGA for cysteine. Candida species, which are yeasts, use CUG (leucine) for serine. Other departures from the universal code, all in nonplant mitochondria, are CUN (leucine) for threonine (in yeasts), AAA (lysine) for asparagine (in platyhelminths and echinoderms), UAA (stop) for tyrosine (in planaria), and AGR (arginine) for serine (in several animal orders) and for stop (in vertebrates). We propose that the changes are typically preceded by loss of a codon from all coding sequences in an organism or organelle, often as a result of directional mutation pressure, accompanied by loss of the tRNA that translates the codon. The codon reappears later by conversion of another codon and emergence of a tRNA that translates the reappeared codon with a different assignment. Changes in release factors also contribute to these revised assignments. We also discuss the use of UGA (stop) as a selenocysteine codon and the early history of the code.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.