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Re-criticizing RNA-mediated cell evolution: a radical perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2015

Christos Kotakis
Christos Kotakis*
Affiliation:
Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, H-6726, Hungary
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Genetic inter-communication of the nucleic-organellar dual in eukaryotes is dominated by DNA-directed phenomena. RNA regulatory circuits have also been observed in artificial laboratory prototypes where gene transfer events are reconstructed, but they are excluded from the primary norm due to their rarity. Recent technical advances in organellar biotechnology, genome engineering and single-molecule tracking give novel experimental insights on RNA metabolism not only at cellular level, but also on organismal survival. Here, I put forward a hypothesis for RNA's involvement in gene piece transfer, taken together the current knowledge on the primitive RNA character as a biochemical modulator with model organisms from peculiar natural habitats. It is proposed that RNA molecules of special structural signature and functional identity can drive evolution, integrating the ecological pressure of environmental oscillations into genome imprinting by buffering-out epigenetic aberrancies.

Keywords

endosymbiotic gene transferLUCAnon-Mendelian inheritancephotosynthesisRNA biochemistrysocial ecology.
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 15 , Special Issue 1: SPECIAL ISSUE LUCAL , January 2016 , pp. 3 - 5
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

Accomplishment of the unfulfilled; a parenthetical trait of simplicity

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