Jayaram B
J Mol Evol. 1997 Dec;45(6):704-5. doi: 10.1007/pl00013144.
A reexamination of the genetic code suggests a rule of conjugates which captures the observed quartet degeneracies without exception. Adenine is the conjugate of cytosine and uracil is the conjugate of guanine. Further analysis reveals that the rule of conjugates is a macrolevel manifestation of the molecular-level hydrogen-bonding and base-stacking interactions at the decoding site. This new perspective is of significance to evolutionary discussions of nucleic acid bases, genetic code, and interactions involving RNAs.
对遗传密码的重新审视表明存在一种共轭规则，该规则无一例外地涵盖了观察到的四重简并性。腺嘌呤是胞嘧啶的共轭物，尿嘧啶是鸟嘌呤的共轭物。进一步分析表明，共轭规则是解码位点分子水平氢键和碱基堆积相互作用的宏观表现。这一新观点对于核酸碱基、遗传密码以及涉及RNA的相互作用的进化讨论具有重要意义。
