title: Fitness Landscapes of Functional RNAs.
abstract: The notion of fitness landscapes, a map between genotype and fitness, was proposed more than 80 years ago. For most of this time data was only available for a few alleles, and thus we had only a restricted view of the whole fitness landscape. Recently, advances in genetics and molecular biology allow a more detailed view of them. Here we review experimental and theoretical studies of fitness landscapes of functional RNAs, especially aptamers and ribozymes. We find that RNA structures can be divided into critical structures, connecting structures, neutral structures and forbidden structures. Such characterisation, coupled with theoretical sequence-to-structure predictions, allows us to construct the whole fitness landscape. Fitness landscapes then can be used to study evolution, and in our case the development of the RNA world.
authors: Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Munich/Pullach, Germany. kunadam@elte.hu.|MTA-ELTE-MTMT Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. kunadam@elte.hu.|Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. kunadam@elte.hu.
authors: Ádám
authors: Á
authors: Kun
authors: Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Munich/Pullach, Germany. szathmary.eors@gmail.com.|Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. szathmary.eors@gmail.com.|MTA-ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary. szathmary.eors@gmail.com.
authors: Eörs
authors: E
authors: Szathmáry
keywords: RNA; aptamer; fitness landscape; origin of life; ribozyme