Functional, Self-Referential Genetic Coding

Abstract

A model for the genetic code structure and organization is presented. It is self-referential due to starting without an mRNA to be translated. Recruitment of tRNAs occurs in pairs, one fishing the other, their anticodons being simultaneously codons for each other. Genes – mRNAs – arise in the process of formation of the code. It is also functional, depicting various consistent correlations with protein properties. First attributions – Gly, Pro, Ser – are the outliers from the hydropathy correlation, protein-stabilizing and RNA-binding amino acids. These properties allow formation of a stable RNP system, the source-product relationship being established. The succession of entries also obeys the following criteria: (a) synthetases class II to class I; (b) protein conformations from aperiodic to helices and then strands; (c) ordering of protein sequences with heads and tails, respectively, stable and unstable, called a non-specific punctuation system, in the second stage; (d) DNA-binding amino acids in the third stage; (e) late development of the specific punctuation system, that of initiation defining the stop signs, and (f) of the hexacodonic expansions of Leu and Arg.