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