Novel look at DNA and life—Symmetry as evolutionary forcing

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Marija Rosandić
• Author: Ines Vlahović
• Author: Vladimir Paar
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Biology

Abstract (english)

After explanation of the Chargaff´s first parity rule in terms of the Watson-Crick base-pairing between the two DNA strands, the Chargaff´s second parity rule for each strand of DNA (also named strand symmetry), which cannot be explained by Watson-Crick base-pairing only, is still a challenging issue already fifty years. We show that during evolution DNA preserves its identity in the form of quadruplet A + T and C + G rich matrices based on purine-pyrimidine mirror symmetries of trinucleotides. Identical symmetries are present in our classification of trinucleotides and the genetic code table. All eukaryotes and almost all prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) have quadruplet mirror symmetries in structural form and frequencies following the principle of Chargaff’s second parity rule and Natural symmetry law of DNA creation and conservation. Some rare symbionts have mirror symmetry only in their structural form within each DNA strand. Based on our matrix analysis of closely related species, humans and Neanderthals, we find that the circular cycle of inverse proportionality between trinucleotides preserves identical relative frequencies of trinucleotides in each quadruplet and in the whole genome. According to our calculations, a change in frequencies in quadruplet matrices could lead to the creation of new species. Violation of quadruplet symmetries is practically inconsistent with life. DNA symmetries provide a key for understanding the restriction of disorder (entropy) due to mutations in the evolution of DNA.

• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Journal of Theoretical Biology
• Numbering: vol. 483, 109985
• p-ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.08.016
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:296602
• Publication: 2019-12
• Document URL: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0022519319303285
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). Received 8 February 2018. Revised 21 June 2018. Accepted 22 August 2019. Available online 27 August 2019.
• Created on: 2020-08-19 10:49:34