Comprehensive experimental fitness landscape and evolutionary network for small RNA

The origin of life is believed to have progressed through an RNA world, in which RNA acted as both genetic material and functional molecules. The structure of the evolutionary fitness landscape of RNA would determine natural selection for the first functional sequences. Fitness landscapes are the su...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 110; no. 37; pp. 14984 - 14989
Main Authors Jiménez, José I., Xulvi-Brunet, Ramon, Campbell, Gregory W., Turk-MacLeod, Rebecca, Chen, Irene A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 10.09.2013
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Aptamers, Nucleotide - chemistry
Aptamers, Nucleotide - genetics
Biological Sciences
center of origin
Directed Molecular Evolution - methods
Ecological competition
Evolution
Evolution, Molecular
Genetic mutation
Landscapes
Libraries
Ligation
Models, Genetic
Molecules
natural selection
Origin of Life
population genetics
Resins
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA - chemistry
RNA - genetics
Selection, Genetic
Sequencing
Synthetic Biology
Systems Biology
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Summary:The origin of life is believed to have progressed through an RNA world, in which RNA acted as both genetic material and functional molecules. The structure of the evolutionary fitness landscape of RNA would determine natural selection for the first functional sequences. Fitness landscapes are the subject of much speculation, but their structure is essentially unknown. Here we describe a comprehensive map of a fitness landscape, exploring nearly all of sequence space, for short RNAs surviving selection in vitro. With the exception of a small evolutionary network, we find that fitness peaks are largely isolated from one another, highlighting the importance of historical contingency and indicating that natural selection would be constrained to local exploration in the RNA world.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1307604110
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Edited by Peter Schuster, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria and approved August 2, 2013 (received for review April 24, 2013)
1J.I.J. and R.X.-B. contributed equally to this work.
Author contributions: J.I.J., R.X.-B., R.T.-M., and I.A.C. designed research; J.I.J., R.X.-B., and R.T.-M. performed research; J.I.J., R.X.-B., G.W.C., and I.A.C. analyzed data; and J.I.J., R.X.-B., G.W.C., and I.A.C. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1307604110