Confounded cytosine! Tinkering and the evolution of DNA
- 1 February 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
- Vol. 2 (2), 147-151
- https://doi.org/10.1038/35052091
Abstract
Early in the history of DNA, thymine replaced uracil, thus solving a short-term problem for storing genetic information — mutation of cytosine to uracil through deamination. Any engineer would have replaced cytosine, but evolution is a tinkerer not an engineer. By keeping cytosine and replacing uracil the problem was never eliminated, returning once again with the advent of DNA methylation.Keywords
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