A Unified Theory on Construction and Evolution of the Genetic Code

Abstract

A quantitative theory on the construction and the evolution of the genetic code is proposed. Through introducing the concept of mutational deterioration (MD) and developing a theoretical formalism on MD minimization we have proved: 1, the redundancy distribution of codons in the genetic code obeys MD minimization principle; 2, the hydrophilic-hydrophobic distribution of amino acids on the code table is global MD (GMD) minimal; 3, the standard genetic code can be deduced from the adaptive minimization of GMD; 4, the variants of the standard genetic code can be explained quantitatively by use of GMD formalism and the general trend of the evolution is GMD non-increasing which reflects the selection on the code. We have demonstrated that the redundancy distribution of codons and the hydrophobic-hydrophilic (H-P) distribution of amino acids are robust in the code relative to the mutational parameter, and indicated that the GMD can be looked as a non-fitness function on the adaptive landscape. Finally, an important aspect on the symmetry of the code construction, the Yin-Yang duality is investigated. The Yin-Yang duality among codons affords a sound basis for understanding the H-P structure in the genetic code.