Evolution of mitochondrial genomes and the genetic code
Article Abstract:
The reductive evolution of the mitochondrial genome is correlated with its inability to support genetic recombination. Reductive evolution refers to the simplifications of animal mitochondrial translation systems such as the minimization of genes used by mitochondrial genomes to code for tRNA species. Codon reassignment confers selective advantage by reducing the undesirable effects of some mutational bias. Reductive evolution of mitochondrial genomes is driven by two forces affecting small populations: growth rate competition and Muller's ratchet.
Publication Name: BioEssays
Subject: Biological sciences
ISSN: 0265-9247
Year: 1992
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Simultaneous origin of homochirality, the genetic code and its directionality
Article Abstract:
A novel experimentally testable hypothesis of a process by which selective chirality in amino acids and ribonucleotides emerged simultaneously and hand-in-hand with the origin and directionality of the genetic code within a system of interactions involving amino acids, peptides, nucleotide bases and their sugars and polynulceotides are presented.
Publication Name: BioEssays
Subject: Biological sciences
ISSN: 0265-9247
Year: 2007
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Validation of hand-held bioelectrical impedance analysis with magnetic resonance imaging for the assessment of body composition in overweight women
- Abstracts: Coat color alleles in the domestic cat populations at the Adriatic Coast. Ascertainment bias in spatially structured populations: A case study in the Eastern Fence Lizard
- Abstracts: The origin and early evolution of birds. The origin of human pathogens: Evaluating the role of agriculture and domestic animals in the evolution of human disease
- Abstracts: Electric fields and the nuclear membrane. The function of melanin or six blind people examine an elephant. Dynamic lipid-bilayer heterogeneity: a mesoscopic vehicle for membrane function?
- Abstracts: Protein folding pathways determined using disuplhide bonds. The evolution of molecular genetic pathways and networks