preprints.org > biology and life sciences > biochemistry and molecular biology > doi: 10.20944/preprints201908.0266.v1

Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 23 August 2019 / Approved: 26 August 2019 / Online: 26 August 2019 (12:39:22 CEST)

In addition to the canonical loss-of-function mutations, mutations in proteins may additionally result in gain-of-function through the binary activation of cryptic ‘structural capacitance elements’. Our previous bioinformatic analysis allowed us to propose a new mechanism of protein evolution - structural capacitance – that arises via the generation of new elements of microstructure upon mutations that cause a disorder-to-order (DO) transition in previously disordered regions of proteins. Here we propose that the DO transition is a necessary follow-on from expected early codon-anticodon and tRNA acceptor stem-amino acid usage, via the accumulation of structural capacitance elements - reservoirs of disorder in proteins. We develop this argument further to posit that structural capacitance is an inherent consequence of the evolution of the genetic code.

structural capacitance, ribosome evolution, protein disordered region, disorder-order transition, codon-anticodon, genetic code

Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

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