Evolution and multilevel optimization of the genetic code

  1. Tobias Bollenbach1,
  2. Kalin Vetsigian1, and
  3. Roy Kishony1,2,3
  1. 1 Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA;
  2. 2 School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Abstract

The discovery of the genetic code was one of the most important advances of modern biology. But there is more to a DNA code than protein sequence; DNA carries signals for splicing, localization, folding, and regulation that are often embedded within the protein-coding sequence. In this issue, Itzkovitz and Alon show that the specific 64-to-20 mapping found in the genetic code may have been optimized for permitting protein-coding regions to carry this extra information and suggest that this property may have evolved as a side benefit of selection to minimize the negative effects of frameshift errors.

Footnotes

  • ↵3 Corresponding author.

    ↵3 E-mail roy_kishony{at}hms.harvard.edu; fax (617) 432-5012.

  • Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.6144007

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  1. Published in Advance March 9, 2007, doi: 10.1101/gr.6144007 Genome Res. 17: 401-404 Copyright © 2007, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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