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Adaptive Evolution of the Genetic Code

  • Chapter
The Genetic Code and the Origin of Life

Abstract

All known genetic codes use 4 bases and 20 amino acids, but many other bases and amino acids have been synthesized and/or found in organisms. The coding relation ships between particular trinucleotides and amino acids can and have evolved, as shown by variants in both mitochondrial and nuclear lineages. Here we review the evidence that vari-ous aspects of the genetic code, including its composition, its degeneracy and the assignments of particular codons to particular amino acids are in some sense optimal, chosen over alterna-tives by natural selection. We also examine several specific proposals about how the code evolved prior to its fixation in the last common ancestor of extant life. Although the pattern of codon assignments appears nearly optimal, other claims for adaptive features are more speculative and many interesting questions remain unresolved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Rob D. Knight

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Stephen J. Freeland & Laura F. Landweber

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  1. Rob D. Knight
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  2. Stephen J. Freeland
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  3. Laura F. Landweber
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Knight, R.D., Freeland, S.J., Landweber, L.F. (2004). Adaptive Evolution of the Genetic Code. In: The Genetic Code and the Origin of Life. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-26887-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-26887-1_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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