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Modular evolution and increase of functional complexity in replicating RNA molecules

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dc.contributor Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (España)
dc.contributor CSIC-INTA - Centro de Astrobiología (CAB)
dc.contributor European Commission
dc.contributor Comunidad de Madrid
dc.creator Manrubia Cuevas, Susanna
dc.creator Briones, Carlos
dc.date 2008-06-12T09:54:35Z
dc.date 2008-06-12T09:54:35Z
dc.date 2007-01
dc.date.accessioned 2017-01-31T01:40:08Z
dc.date.available 2017-01-31T01:40:08Z
dc.identifier RNA. 2007 January; 13(1): 97–107
dc.identifier 1355-8382
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10261/5025
dc.identifier 10.1261/rna.203006
dc.identifier.uri http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/10261/5025
dc.description Copyright © by Cambridge University Press.-- Final full-text version of the paper available at: http://intl.rnajournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/1/97
dc.description At early stages of biochemical evolution, the complexity of replicating molecules was limited by unavoidably high mutation rates. In an RNA world, prior to the appearance of cellular life, an increase in molecular length, and thus in functional complexity, could have been mediated by modular evolution. We describe here a scenario in which short, replicating RNA sequences are selected to perform a simple function. Molecular function is represented through the secondary structure corresponding to each sequence, and a given target secondary structure yields the optimal function in the environment where the population evolves. The combination of independently evolved populations may have facilitated the emergence of larger molecules able to perform more complex functions (including RNA replication) that could arise as a combination of simpler ones. We quantitatively show that modular evolution has relevant advantages with respect to the direct evolution of large functional molecules, among them the allowance of higher mutation rates, the shortening of evolutionary times, and the very possibility of finding complex structures that could not be otherwise directly selected.
dc.description This work was supported by Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia (FIS2004-06414), INTA, EU, and CAM. S.C.M. benefits from a Ramo´n y Cajal contract.
dc.description Peer reviewed
dc.format 439791 bytes
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language eng
dc.publisher Cambridge University Press
dc.rights openAccess
dc.subject RNA folding
dc.subject Molecular evolution
dc.subject Genotype–phenotype relationship
dc.subject Structural motifs
dc.subject RNA world
dc.title Modular evolution and increase of functional complexity in replicating RNA molecules
dc.type Artículo


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