Mapping a Systematic Ribozyme Fitness Landscape Reveals a Frustrated Evolutionary Network for Self-Aminoacylating RNA.

ABSTRACT: Molecular evolution can be conceptualized as a walk over a "fitness landscape", or the function of fitness (e.g., catalytic activity) over the space of all possible sequences. Understanding evolution requires knowing the structure of the fitness landscape and identifying the viable evolutionary pathways through the landscape. However, the fitness landscape for any catalytic biomolecule is largely unknown. The evolution of catalytic RNA is of special interest because RNA is believed to have been foundational to early life. In particular, an essential activity leading to the genetic code would be the reaction of ribozymes with activated amino acids, such as 5(4 H)-oxazolones, to form aminoacyl-RNA. Here we combine in vitro selection with a massively parallel kinetic assay to map a fitness la

SUBMITTER: Pressman AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6548421 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature