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. 1974 Oct;71(10):4135–4139. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.10.4135

Kinetic Proofreading: A New Mechanism for Reducing Errors in Biosynthetic Processes Requiring High Specificity

J J Hopfield 1,2
PMCID: PMC434344  PMID: 4530290

Abstract

The specificity with which the genetic code is read in protein synthesis, and with which other highly specific biosynthetic reactions take place, can be increased above the level available from free energy differences in intermediates or kinetic barriers by a process defined here as kinetic proofreading. A simple kinetic pathway is described which results in this proofreading when the reaction is strongly but nonspecifically driven, e.g., by phosphate hydrolysis. Protein synthesis, amino acid recognition, and DNA replication, all exhibit the features of this model. In each case, known reactions which otherwise appear to be useless or deleterious complications are seen to be essential to the proofreading function.

Keywords: protein synthesis, DNA replication, amino-acid recognition

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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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