A unified model of the standard genetic code

作者：Jose Marco V; Zamudio Gabriel S; Morgado Eberto R

来源：Royal Society Open Science, 2017, 4(3): 160908.

DOI：10.1098/rsos.160908

• standard genetic code
• symmetry groups
• aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases
• group actions
• automorphisms
• polar requirement

The Rodin-Ohno (RO) and the Delarue models divide the table of the genetic code into two classes of aminoacyltRNA synthetases (aaRSs I and II) with recognition from the minor or major groove sides of the tRNA acceptor stem, respectively. These models are asymmetric but they are biologically meaningful. On the other hand, the standard genetic code (SGC) can be derived from the primeval RNY code (R stands for purines, Y for pyrimidines and N any of them). In this work, the RO-model is derived bymeans of group actions, namely, symmetries represented by automorphisms, assuming that the SGC originated from a primeval RNY code. It turns out that the RO-model is symmetric in a six-dimensional (6D) hypercube. Conversely, using the same automorphisms, we show that the RO-model can lead to the SGC. In addition, the asymmetric Delarue model becomes symmetric by means of quotient group operations. We formulate isometric functions that convert the class aaRS I into the class aaRS II and vice versa. We show that the four polar requirement categories display a symmetrical arrangement in our 6D hypercube. Altogether these results cannot be attained, neither in two nor in three dimensions. We discuss the present unified 6D algebraicmodel, which is compatible with both the SGC (based upon the primeval RNY code) and the RO-model.

• 出版日期2017-3