title: Question 6: coevolution theory of the genetic code: a proven theory.
abstract: The coevolution theory proposes that primordial proteins consisted only of those amino acids readily obtainable from the prebiotic environment, representing about half the twenty encoded amino acids of today, and the missing amino acids entered the system as the code expanded along with pathways of amino acid biosynthesis. The isolation of genetic code mutants, and the antiquity of pretran synthesis revealed by the comparative genomics of tRNAs and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, have combined to provide a rigorous proof of the four fundamental tenets of the theory, thus solving the riddle of the structure of the universal genetic code.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Applied Genomics Laboratory, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China. bcjtw@ust.hk
authors.forename: Jeffrey Tze-Fei
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D003062:Codon; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D005815:Genetic Code; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009154:Mutation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003062:Codon; D011506:Proteins; D012343:RNA, Transfer