Churkin Alexander, Cohen Moriah, Shemer-Avni Yonat, Barash Danny
Department of Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
J Bioinform Comput Biol. 2010 Dec;8(6):1013-26. doi: 10.1142/s0219720010005087.
The properties and origin of genetic robustness have recently been investigated in several works that examined microRNA stem-loop structures, and a variety of conclusions have been reached without agreement. Considering that this is a universal phenomenon that is not restricted to miRNAs, we recall the original work on this topic that began from looking at viral RNAs of several types. We provide a link to this work by examining the neutrality of HCV structural elements, performing a detailed bioinformatic analysis using RNA secondary structure predictions across genotypes. This study provides supporting evidence for direct evolution of genetic robustness that is not limited to noncoding RNAs participating in gene regulation, but includes functionally important structural elements of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that show excess of robustness beyond the intrinsic robustness of their stem-loop structure. These findings further support the adaptive behavior of genetic robustness in functional RNAs of various types that seem to have evolved with selection pressure towards increased robustness.
近期，在多项研究中对遗传稳健性的特性和起源进行了调查，这些研究考察了微小RNA（miRNA）的茎环结构，但得出了各种不同结论，尚未达成共识。鉴于这是一种普遍现象，并不局限于miRNA，我们回顾了最初关于这个主题的研究，该研究始于对几种类型病毒RNA的观察。我们通过研究丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）结构元件的中性，利用跨基因型的RNA二级结构预测进行详细的生物信息学分析，为这项研究提供了一个关联。这项研究为遗传稳健性的直接进化提供了支持证据，这种进化不仅限于参与基因调控的非编码RNA，还包括丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）功能上重要的结构元件，这些元件表现出超出其茎环结构固有稳健性的过度稳健性。这些发现进一步支持了各种功能RNA中遗传稳健性的适应性行为，这些功能RNA似乎是在选择压力下朝着增强稳健性的方向进化而来的。
