The fundamental tradeoff in genomes and proteomes of prokaryotes established by the genetic code, codon entropy, and physics of nucleic acids and proteins.

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

BackgroundMutations in nucleotide sequences provide a foundation for genetic variability, and selection is the driving force of the evolution and molecular adaptation. Despite considerable progress in the understanding of selective forces and their compositional determinants, the very nature of underlying mutational biases remains unclear.ResultsWe explore here a fundamental tradeoff, which analytically describes mutual adjustment of the nucleotide and amino acid compositions and its possible effect on the mutational biases. The tradeoff is determined by the interplay between the genetic code, optimization of the codon entropy, and demands on the structure and stability of nucleic acids and proteins.ConclusionThe tradeoff is the unifying property of all prokaryotes regardless of the differences in their phylogenies, life styles, and extreme environments. It underlies mutational biases characteristic for genomes with different nucleotide and amino acid compositions, providing foundation for evolution and adaptation.ReviewersThis article was reviewed by Eugene Koonin, Michael Gromiha, and Alexander Schleiffer.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13062-014-0029-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.