ArticleBiology direct2008
Evidence from glycine transfer RNA of a frozen accident at the dawn of the genetic code.
Article in Biology direct, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Evolution of the First Code.Genes · 2026Review
- Chemical Evolution of Life on Earth.Genes · 2025Review
- Cellular Site-Specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids in Synthetic Biology.Chemical reviews · 2024Review
- The 3 31 Nucleotide Minihelix tRNA Evolution Theorem and the Origin of Life.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- On the Evolutionary History of the Twenty Encoded Amino Acids.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2022Review
- Genetic Code Expansion Through Quadruplet Codon Decoding.Journal of molecular biology · 2022Review
- Evolution of the genetic code.Transcription · 2021Review
- Evolution of the genetic code; Evidence from serine codon use disparity inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Evolution of Life on Earth: tRNA, Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases and the Genetic Code.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- The Ancient Operational Code is Embedded in the Amino Acid Substitution Matrix and aaRS Phylogenies.Journal of molecular evolution · 2020Article
- A tRNA- and Anticodon-Centric View of the Evolution of Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases, tRNAomes, and the Genetic Code.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Ribosome Structure, Function, and Early Evolution.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Review
- Rooted tRNAomes and evolution of the genetic code.Transcription · 2018Article
- On the Uniqueness of the Standard Genetic Code.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Article
- Clues to tRNA Evolution from the Distribution of Class II tRNAs and Serine Codons in the Genetic Code.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2016Article
- Systematic Evolution and Study of UAGN Decoding tRNAs in a Genomically Recoded Bacteria.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Origins and Early Evolution of the tRNA Molecule.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2015Review
- Beyond the Frozen Accident: Glycine Assignment in the Genetic Code.Journal of molecular evolution · 2015Article
- Genetic code evolution started with the incorporation of glycine, followed by other small hydrophilic amino acids.Journal of molecular evolution · 2014Article
- The RNA world hypothesis: the worst theory of the early evolution of life (except for all the others)(a).Biology direct · 2012Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTransfer RNA (tRNA) is the means by which the cell translates DNA sequence into protein according to the rules of the genetic code. A credible proposition is that tRNA was formed from the duplication of an RNA hairpin half the length of the contemporary tRNA molecule, with the point at which the hairpins were joined marked by the canonical intron insertion position found today within tRNA genes. If these hairpins possessed a 3'-CCA terminus with different combinations of stem nucleotides (the ancestral operational RNA code), specific aminoacylation and perhaps participation in some form of noncoded protein synthesis might have occurred. However, the identity of the first tRNA and the initial steps in the origin of the genetic code remain elusive.
resultsHere we show evidence that glycine tRNA was the first tRNA, as revealed by a vestigial imprint in the anticodon loop sequences of contemporary descendents. This provides a plausible mechanism for the missing first step in the origin of the genetic code. In 448 of 466 glycine tRNA gene sequences from bacteria, archaea and eukaryote cytoplasm analyzed, CCA occurs immediately upstream of the canonical intron insertion position, suggesting the first anticodon (NCC for glycine) has been captured from the 3'-terminal CCA of one of the interacting hairpins as a result of an ancestral ligation.
conclusionThat this imprint (including the second and third nucleotides of the glycine tRNA anticodon) has been retained through billions of years of evolution suggests Crick's 'frozen accident' hypothesis has validity for at least this very first step at the dawn of the genetic code. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Dr Eugene V. Koonin, Dr Rob Knight and Dr David H Ardell.
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