RNA or DNA? Revisiting the Chemical Nature of the Cenancestral Genome.
J Mol Evol
; 92(5): 647-658, 2024 Oct.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39145798
ABSTRACT
One of the central issues in the understanding of early cellular evolution is the characterisation of the cenancestor. This includes the description of the chemical nature of its genome. The disagreements on this question comprise several proposals, including the possibility that AlkB-mediated methylation repair of alkylated RNA molecules may be interpreted as evidence of a cenancestral RNA genome. We present here an evolutionary analysis of the cupin-like protein superfamily based on tertiary structure-based phylogenies that includes the oxygen-dependent AlkB and its homologs. Our results suggest that the repair of methylated RNA molecules is the outcome of the enzyme substrate ambiguity, and doesn´t necessarily indicates that the last common ancestor was endowed with an RNA genome.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Phylogeny
/
DNA
/
RNA
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Genome
/
Evolution, Molecular
Language:
En
Journal:
J Mol Evol
/
J. mol. evol
/
Journal of molecular evolution
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
México
Country of publication:
Alemania