Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:41:16.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Non-randomness of nucleotide bases in mRNA codons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

R. F. Nassar
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, Kansas State University
R. D. Cook
Affiliation:
School of Statistics, University of Minnesota, St Paul
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Maximum likelihood estimates of codon and base frequencies from observed amino acid composition of proteins were obtained based on models capable of revealing dependency between base arrangements in the three positions of a codon. Results showed that many of the proteins analysed revealed dependency between base arrangements in the first and second codon positions (first-order interaction). Also, in a number of proteins the interactions between base arrangements seemed to involve simultaneously more than one first order interaction and/or a second-order interaction (among base arrangements in the three codon positions). It was of interest to observe that the model of random base arrangements did not fit the observed amino acid data in almost all of the proteins that were analysed. More than ten amino acids contributed to this deviation from randomness.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

References

REFERENCES

Clarke, B. (1969). Darwinian evolution of proteins. Science 168, 10091011.Google Scholar
Clarke, B. (1970). Selective constraint on amino acid substitutions during the evolution of proteins. Nature 228, 159160.Google Scholar
Cook, R. D. & Nassar, R. F. (1975). The amino acid composition of proteins: A method of analysis. Theoretical Population Biology 67, 6483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayhoff, M. O. (1972). Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, vol. v. Silver Spring, Maryland: National Biometrical Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Epstein, C. J. (1967). Nonrandomness of amino acid changes in the evolution of homologous proteins. Nature 215, 355359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fienberg, S. E. (1970). The analysis of multidimensional contingency tables. Ecology 51, 419433.Google Scholar
Fienberg, S. E. (1972). The analysis of incomplete multi-way contingency tables. Biometrics 28, 177202.Google Scholar
Harris, H. (1966). Enzyme polymorphisms in man. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B 164, 298310.Google Scholar
Josse, J., Kaiser, A. D. & Kornberg, A. (1961). Enzymatic synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid. VIII. Frequencies of nearest neighbor base sequencies in deoxyribonucleic acid. Journal of Biological Chemistry 236, 864875.Google Scholar
Kimura, M. (1968). Genetic variability maintained in a finite population due to mutational production of neutral and nearly neutral isoalleles. Genetical Research 11, 247269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, M. & Ohta, T. (1971 a). Protein polymorphism as a phase of molecular evolution. Nature 229, 467469.Google Scholar
Kimura, M. & Ohta, T. (1961 b). Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kimura, M. & Ohta, Y. (1972). Population genetics, molecular biometry, and evolution. Proceedings of the Sixth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, v, 4365.Google Scholar
King, J. L. & Jukes, T. H. (1969). Nondarwinian evolution: random fixation of selectively neutral mutations. Science 164, 788798.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. & Hubby, J. L. (1966). A molecular approach to the study of genie heterozygosity in natural populations. II. Amounts of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 54, 595609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohta, T. & Kemura, M. (1970). Statistical analysis of the base composition of genes using data on the amino acid composition of proteins. Genetics 64, 387395.Google Scholar
Stebbins, G. L. & Lewontin, R. C. (1972). Comparative evolution at the levels of molecules, organisms and populations. Proceedings of the Sixth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematica Statistics and Probability, v, 2342.Google Scholar