A New Theory

There is a new theory explaining why our genes are as complex as they are  and it offers a suggestion that in the beginning of time when life was evolved on the earth the ”soup” where life began was hot, it was previously thought to be cold. Researchers from the University of Bath issued a statement that they have a new theory that could possibility solve a mystery that has baffled the scientific world since they first discovered the meaning of DNA forty years ago.

The Puzzle

In 1968, a group of Nobel Prize winners discovered how proteins were produced from a genetic code. There are three letter words named Condons which are read from a DNA code and afterwards translated into one of the twenty different amino acids. Then the amino acids are strung together in what ever order the DNA dictates. They are then folded into more shapes to form a protein that is specific.

The alphabet of the DNA contains four letters which are called bases and in the dictionary of the DNA what is available are sixty four three letter words. Why the DNA dictionary should contain sixty four words which will translate into only twenty amino acids and why the transmission is as complex as it is has baffled scientists for forty years.

Many scientists have tried to suggest theories but they were discounted swiftly. The main issue has been why there are more Condons than the amino acids. The genetic code has quirks and one of them is groups of condons translate into the same amino acids. Leucine which is an amino acid can be translated from different condons, actually six, and other amino acids equally important which are translated in the same amount have only one.

The new theory is built on an idea of Francis Crick that the three letter code derived from a simple two letter code. The University of Bath thought that the two letter code was read in threes but only the first two prefix or last two suffix pairs of bases were read. Combining the arrangements of doublet codes together the table of amino acids can be replicated; this explains why some amino acids can be translated from groups of 2, 4, and six Condons.

It also shows why hydrophilic and hydrophobic emerge in the table, coming from prefix and suffix condons that overlap when the doublet system changes into a triplet system, then an exact match between the number and range of the existing amino acids shows up.