著者

Takeshi OHAMA Yuji INAGAKI Yoshitaka BESSHO Syozo OSAWA

出版者

The Japan Academy

雑誌

Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B (ISSN:03862208)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.84, no.2, pp.58-74, 2008-02-28 (Released:2008-02-12)

参考文献数

47

被引用文献数

17 23

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In 1985, we reported that a bacterium, Mycoplasma capricolum, used a deviant genetic code, namely UGA, a “universal” stop codon, was read as tryptophan. This finding, together with the deviant nuclear genetic codes in not a few organisms and a number of mitochondria, shows that the genetic code is not universal, and is in a state of evolution. To account for the changes in codon meanings, we proposed the codon capture theory stating that all the code changes are non-disruptive without accompanied changes of amino acid sequences of proteins. Supporting evidence for the theory is presented in this review. A possible evolutionary process from the ancient to the present-day genetic code is also discussed.(Communicated by Takao SEKIYA, M.J.A.)