Avoiding Catastrophic Mutations Accurately Predicts Amino Acid to Codon Pairing.

ABSTRACT: DNA codon mutations involving Stop signals or the amino acid cysteine can be especially damaging. The former can break protein sequences or add extraneous amino acids. The latter can add or subtract disulfide bonds crucial in protein folding. We present a hypothetical scenario where Stop codons were present early in the evolution of the genetic code; and minimizing catastrophic mutations for code networks affected all subsequent amino acid/codon pairings. Predicted features of this "Catastrophic Mutation Minimization Hypothesis" (CMMH) are that: (1) Cysteine is mutationally adjacent to Stop, isolating a contiguous codon 'neighborhood' with high potential for catastrophe. (2) The sequence of amino acid additions order determines codon assignments through minimizing network-wide mutation cos

SUBMITTER: Nonacs P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12920281 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature