Abstract
Schultz and Yarus (J. Mol. Biol. 235:1377–1380, 1994) have proposed that reassignment of codons in the genetic code passes through a stage in which the codons are ambiguously translated. In contrast, we state that such ambiguity would be deleterious, and that, to be reassigned, a codon, together with the tRNA that translates the codon, must first disappear from coding sequences, after which a tRNA appears with a mutated anticodon, and this enables the codon to reappear with a changed meaning. In the case of a stop codon, the relevant release factor must change so as not to recognize it.
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Correspondence to: T.H. Jukes
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Osawa, S., Jukes, T.H. On Codon reassignment. J Mol Evol 41, 247–249 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170679
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170679