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PubMed · 10472630

Directed molecular evolution.

L F Harris·M R Sullivan·D L Hatfield
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Abstract

We propose the existence of a relationship of stereochemical complementarity between gene sequences that code for interacting components: nucleic acid-nucleic acid, protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid. Such a relationship would impose evolutionary constraints on the DNA sequences themselves, thus retaining these sequences and governing the direction of the evolutionary process. Therefore, we propose that prebiotic, template-directed autocatalytic synthesis of mutally cognate peptides and polynucleotides resulted in their amplification and evolutionary conservation in contemporary prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms as a genetic regulatory apparatus. If this proposal is correct, then the relationships between the sequences in DNA coding for these interactions constitute a life code of which the genetic code is only one aspect of the many related interactions encoded in DNA.

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Base SequenceDNADNA-Binding ProteinsDirected Molecular EvolutionModels, ChemicalModels, MolecularMolecular Sequence DataRNA, MessengerStereoisomerismJournal ArticleReview

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L F Harris, M R Sullivan, D L Hatfield. 1999. Directed molecular evolution.. https://doi.org/10.1023/a%3A1006683409144

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