I was doing some drawing or doodling of strands of RNA last
night and came up with something I think is interesting
though extremely tentative.
The basic idea is this: denaturing of bp of a strand of RNA
with GC = replication
denaturing of bp of a strand of RNA with AU = coding with A
= philic, and U = phobic.
(bp = base pair, in this case Watson Crick base pairing)
Here is the idea as far as I have taken it.
IF you have a single strand of RNA that anneals in cool
temp, into any shape, there will be GC bp and AU bp.
Let's pretend there are two high heat levels. The one
denatures AU bp only (2 h-bonds), the other denatures both
GC (3 h-bonds) and AU.
When the AU denaturing point hits - all AU stretches will
denature. That means that no matter where the AU stretch in
the strand is, it'll form an open loop a denatured loop. Now
let's say the ends of the strands are AU too. They will
denature too.
So when the temp hits the point where AU denatures, this
strand will form AU open loops inside the strand, AND AU
ends that are now unfolded.
I suggest the loops led to the anticodon, the ends to the
acceptor stem (both are AU means both will denature at the
same temperature point).
Now we have A/U coding. Then I suggest this led to two
classes of amino acids (somehow). The A= the hydrophilic,
the U = the hydrophobic.
Now back to the denaturing of the strand. IF the temp is
such that both AU and the thermally stronger GC are
denatured, then the strand will denature completely. In this
unfolded state, I suggest the strand was replicated (with
the help of a necessary ribozyme). Then the replicated
strand would anneal or refold in the cool part of the cycle.
And the process would repeat. Thus we have GC denaturing led
to complete unfolding, and then replication of that strand
(with the help of a ribozyme), while AU denaturing led (in
some unclear way) to open coding loops of AU and open stems
of AU that led to A coding = philic, and U coding = phobic.
And the start of the genetic code.
That's all so far. Comment?