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. 1985 Aug;82(16):5337–5341. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.16.5337

Detection of a fundamental modular format common to transfer and ribosomal RNAs: second-order spectral analysis.

A D Nazarea, D P Bloch, A C Semrau
PMCID: PMC390563  PMID: 3895229

Abstract

Second-order spectral analysis is used to detect rigorously and to characterize the principal periodicities in the positions of conserved sequences common to tRNAs and rRNAs. It is shown that the shared periodicity having the largest spectral amplitude is 9, followed by 8 and 10, thus forming a closed triad of significant multiplets centered at 9 bases. This conclusion is proposed to reflect a closed triadic set of fundamental tandem repeat lengths in a class of ancestral macromolecules possessing a restricted sequence symmetry. The terms "remanent" and "archeomodular" are used to describe a relic modular format, traces of which are shown here to persist despite the changes that have occurred in the primary structures of ribonucleic acids during the course of their evolution.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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