Menzerath-Altmann's Law of Syntax in RNA Accretion History.

ABSTRACT: RNA evolves by adding substructural parts to growing molecules. Molecular accretion history can be dissected with phylogenetic methods that exploit structural and functional evidence. Here, we explore the statistical behaviors of lengths of double-stranded and single-stranded segments of growing tRNA, 5S rRNA, RNase P RNA, and rRNA molecules. The reconstruction of character state changes along branches of phylogenetic trees of molecules and trees of substructures revealed strong pushes towards an economy of scale. In addition, statistically significant negative correlations and strong associations between the average lengths of helical double-stranded stems and their time of origin (age) were identified with the Pearson's correlation and Spearman's rho methods. The ages of substructures we

SUBMITTER: Sun F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8228408 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature