AUTHOR=Buckle Ashley M. , Buckle Malcolm TITLE=Ribosome Evolution and Structural Capacitance JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences VOLUME=6 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2019.00123 DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2019.00123 ISSN=2296-889X ABSTRACT=

In addition to the canonical loss-of-function mutations, mutations in proteins may additionally result in gain-of-function through the binary activation of cryptic “structural capacitance elements.” Our previous bioinformatic analysis allowed us to propose a new mechanism of protein evolution – structural capacitance – that arises via the generation of new elements of microstructure upon mutations that cause a disorder-to-order (D→O) transition in previously disordered regions of proteins. Here we propose that the D→O transition is a necessary follow-on from expected early codon-anticodon and tRNA acceptor stem-amino acid usage, via the accumulation of structural capacitance elements – reservoirs of disorder in proteins. We develop this argument further to posit that structural capacitance is an inherent consequence of the evolution of the genetic code.