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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

A Nonsequencing Approach for the Rapid Detection of RNA Editing
Published on: April 21, 2022
RNA editing and modifications of RNAs might have favoured the evolution of the triplet genetic code from an ennuplet
Massimo Di Giulio1, Marco Moracci2, Beatrice Cobucci-Ponzano2
1Early Evolution of Life Laboratory, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, CNR, Via P. Castellino 111, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Abstract:
Here we suggest that the origin of the genetic code, that is to say, the birth of first mRNAs has been triggered by means of a widespread modification of all RNAs (proto-mRNAs and proto-tRNAs), as today observed in the RNA editing and in post-transcriptional modifications of RNAs, which are considered as fossils of this evolutionary stage of the genetic code origin. We consider also that other mechanisms, such as the trans-translation and ribosome frameshifting, could have favoured the transition from an ennuplet code to a triplet code. Therefore, according to our hypothesis all these mechanisms would be reflexive of this period of the evolutionary history of the genetic code.
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