Recent studies concerning the coding mechanism

The information capacity of the genetic code: Is the natural code optimal?

We envision the molecular evolution process as an information transfer process and provide a quantitative measure for information preservation in terms of the channel capacity according to the channel coding theorem of Shannon. We calculate Information capacities of DNA on the nucleotide (for non-coding DNA) and the amino acid (for coding DNA) level using various substitution models. We extend our results on coding DNA to a discussion about the optimality of the natural codon-amino acid code. We provide the results of an adaptive search algorithm in the code domain and demonstrate the existence of a large number of genetic codes with higher information capacity. Our results support the hypothesis of an ancient extension from a 2-nucleotide codon to the current 3-nucleotide codon code to encode the various amino acids.

On the origin of biological chirality via natural beta-decay

Experimental evidence that longitudinally polarized electrons having the handedness characteristic of terrestrial beta-decay electrons preferentially remove D-leucine from a racemic mixture, coupled with the probable presence of 14C in pre-biotic molecules, offers a plausible hypothesis for the origin of biomolecular handedness.

Transfer ribonucleic acid nucleotidyltransferase and transfer ribonucleic acid in Sendai virions

Sendai virions contain both transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) nucleotidyltransferase and its substrate, tRNA missing its CCA-OH end.