Triple-Stranded Polynucleotide Helix Containing Only Purine Bases
- 6 July 1973
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 181 (4094) , 68-69
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.181.4094.68
Abstract
The structure of the complex involving one polyadenylic acid and two polyinosinic acid chains has been determined by x-ray diffraction. The three coaxial, helical chains have conformations like conventional RNA double helices despite the absence of purine-pyrimidine pairing. Formation of hypoxanthine pairs in codon-anticodon interactions therefore requires only trivial changes in the conformation of a standard nucleotide. Evolution of the contemporary genetic code involving purine-pyrimidine complementarity from a primeval code with only adenine-hypoxanthine pairing would have been possible without major discontinuities in molecular geometry.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Codon—anticodon pairing: The wobble hypothesisPublished by Elsevier ,2009
- Evolution of the genetic apparatusPublished by Elsevier ,2004
- Optimised parameters for RNA double-helicesBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1972
- Optimised parameters for A-DNA and B-DNABiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1972
- The geometry of nucleic acidsProgress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 1970
- Least-squares refinement of the crystal and molecular structures of DNA and RNA from X-ray data and standard bond lengths and anglesActa Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials, 1969
- Conservation of Conformation in Mono and Poly-nucleotidesNature, 1969
- The origin of the genetic codeJournal of Molecular Biology, 1968
- Molecular Conformations and Structure Transitions of RNA Complementary Helices and their Possible Biological SignificanceNature, 1968
- FORMATION OF A THREE-STRANDED POLYNUCLEOTIDE MOLECULEJournal of the American Chemical Society, 1957