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Published on: March 13, 2011
Tracing ancient mRNA hairpins
Idan Gabdank1, Danny Barash, Edward N Trifonov
1Department of Computer Science, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B 653, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel. gabdank@cs.bgu.ac.il
Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics
|August 25, 2006
Summary
Early messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules were short, stable hairpins. Modern mRNA analysis reveals surviving complementarities, supporting the theory of an ancient duplex structure for early coding sequences.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Evolution
- Bioinformatics
- Genomics
Background:
- Early evolution theories suggest primitive messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules were short (approx. 20 nucleotides) and (G+C)-rich.
- These short sequences could form stable and unique hairpin structures, offering evolutionary advantages.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary persistence of structural features in early mRNA.
- To computationally analyze modern prokaryotic mRNA for evidence supporting ancient hairpin structures.
Main Methods:
- Computational analysis of modern prokaryotic mRNA sequences.
- Identification and analysis of short-range complementarities within mRNA sequences.
- Comparison of observed hairpin structures with theoretical predictions for early mRNA.
Main Results:
- An excess of expected short-range complementarities was found in modern prokaryotic mRNA.
- The size of derived earliest mRNA hairpins aligns with predicted sizes of ancient coding duplexes.
- Surviving hairpins in modern mRNA confirm the proposed duplex structure of earliest mRNA.
Conclusions:
- Modern mRNA sequences contain evidence of ancient hairpin structures.
- Findings support the theory of a duplex structure for the earliest mRNA molecules.
- The stability and uniqueness of early hairpin conformations likely played a crucial role in early molecular evolution.
