Bedau, Mark A., John S. McCaskill, Norman H. Packard, and Steen Rasmussen. “Evolution of genetic code through isologous diversification of cellular states.” (2000): 122-131.
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Evolution of genetic code is studied as the change in the choice of enzymes that are used to synthesize amino acids from the genetic information of nucleic acids. We propose the following scenario: the differentiation of physiological states of a cell allows for the different choice of enzymes, and this choice is later fixed genetically through evolution. To demonstrate this scenario, a dynamical systems model consisting of the concentrations of metabolites, enzymes, amino acvl tRNA synthetase, and tRNA-amino acid complex in a cell is introduced and numerically studied. It is shown that the biochemical states of cells are differentiated by cell-cell interaction, and each differentiated type takes to use different synthetase. Through the mutation of genes, this difference in the genetic code is amplified and stabilized. Relevance of this scenario to the evolution of non-universal genetic code in mitochondria is suggested.