GENOMICS: getting more from less

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Mon Aug 11 2003 - 06:56:36 MDT

  • Next message: Alex Ramonsky: "Re: Amazing illusions"

    Interesting. I do not recall encountering this during my
    biological education -- it seems that in certain genes the
    RNA produced from the DNA undergoes a conversion process
    where some or many of the adenosines (A) become inosine (I).
    That implies that RNA has a 5-letter code (A/C/G/I/U) rather
    rather than a 4-letter code as does DNA (A/C/G/T).
    Interestingly, at least some of the RNA base letter conversions
    seem to be based on the 3-D structure the RNA forms and appear
    to be targeted to genes found primarily in the nervous system.

    See:
    Dual Discoveries In Genetic Processing Improve Accuracy Of Genome Information
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030811070921.htm

    RNA Editing by Adenosine Deaminase
    http://www.molbio.su.se/rna_edit_res.htm

    A to I RNA Editing Web Site
    http://www.rna.ucla.edu/atoi/

    The implication is that evolution found a way to produce a
    greater amount of information from a lesser amount of
    information. If one thinks about this for a while I think
    it has significant "information theory" consequences.

    Robert



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Aug 11 2003 - 07:05:41 MDT