Robert Bradbury wrote:
First you make the genetic code brittle in terms of no
"redundancy". To do this optimally, you have to study
the mechanisms driving transition & transversion frequencies
(http://www.iona.edu/faculty/csackerson/genetics/mutation.htm)
and "rig" the code such that the most likely mutations
generate either STOP codons or "radical" amino-acid changes
(i.e. + charge to - charge, hydrophobic to hydrophilic, etc.).
I haven't tried to do this yet -- I suspect to really
get it right requires a fair amount of simulation based
on existing genomes.
### How about triple-overlapped code - just like in some bacteria where one
stretch of DNA codes for three proteins in the three reading frames. Any
mutation would change always 3 proteins at the same time, and it would be
unlikely that the organism could deal with it and accumulate more mutations
necessary to drive selection. You could even try sextuple-overlap - all
reading frames on both strands of DNA.
Rafal Smigrodzki MD-PhD
Dept Neurology University of Pittsburgh
smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu
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