Journal of Molecular Evolution

, Volume 78, Issue 6, pp 310–312 | Cite as

Proline Might Have Been the First Amino Acid in the Primitive Genetic Code

  • Reina Komatsu
  • Risa Sawada
  • Takuya Umehara
  • Koji Tamura
Letter to the Editor
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Stereochemical assignment of amino acids and corresponding codons or anticodons has not been successful so far. Here, we focused on proline and GGG (anticodon of tRNAPro) and investigated their mutual interaction. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that guanosine nucleotides (GG, GGG) formed G-quartet structures. The structures were destroyed by adding high concentrations of proline. We propose that the possibility of the reversible proline/G-quartet interaction could have contributed to the specific assignment of proline on GGG and that this coding could have been the first in the genetic code.

Keywords

Origin Genetic code Proline tRNA Anticodon G-quartet 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants-in-aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MEXT), Japan (Grant No. 25291082 to K.T. and 24710231 to T.U.), and the programme for the development of strategic research centre in private universities by MEXT, Japan.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Reina Komatsu
    • 1
  • Risa Sawada
    • 1
  • Takuya Umehara
    • 1
  • Koji Tamura
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Biological Science and TechnologyTokyo University of ScienceTokyoJapan
  2. 2.Research Institute for Science and TechnologyTokyo University of ScienceNodaJapan

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