Direct evolution of genetic robustness in microRNA.

ABSTRACT: Genetic robustness, the invariance of the phenotype in the face of genetic perturbations, can endow the organism with reduced susceptibility to mutations. A large body of work in recent years has focused on the origins, mechanisms, and consequences of robustness in a wide range of biological systems. Despite the apparent prevalence of mutational robustness in nature, however, its evolutionary origins are still unclear. Does robustness evolve directly by natural selection or is it merely a correlated byproduct of other phenotypic traits? By examining microRNA (miRNA) genes of several eukaryotic species, we show that the structure of miRNA precursor stem-loops exhibits a significantly high level of mutational robustness in comparison with random RNA sequences with similar stem-loop structure

SUBMITTER: Borenstein E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1458928 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature