Abstract
A correlation of various aspects of the protein structures and substrate and mechanistic specificities of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases has led to the identification of at least one family of enzymes probably derived from a common ancestral synthetase. While strong correlations exist only in one part of the array of 64 codons comprising the Genetic Code, this itself may be interpreted as a meaningful pattern, most consistent with a development of the present code from earlier codes containing fewer amino acids and fewer available codons. Specifically, strong correlations in the enzymes whose cognate tRNAs respond to codons containing a central pyrimidine, including the enzyme family of Ile-, Phe-, Val-, Met-, and Leu-tRNA synthetases, suggests that these enzymes evolved last, and that, therefore, an earlier version of the Genetic Code was comprised solely of codons containing a central purine. It is suggested that further study of the historical interrelationships of these enzymes could lead to a fairly detailed picture of how the Genetic Code developed.
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Wetzel, R. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase families and their significance to the origin of the genetic code. Origins Life Evol Biosphere 9, 39–50 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00929712
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00929712