Open AccessTemplate switching in DNA replication can create and maintain RNA hairpins
Author(s) -
Heli A. M. Mönttinen,
Ari Löytynoja
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2107005119
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , base pair , rna , dna , mutation , gene , computational biology , context (archaeology) , paleontology
Significance RNA hairpin structures require perfect pairing between consecutive bases of the opposite sides of the stem. Random mutations are unlikely to create complex structures, so the origin of long stems and the maintenance of their perfect base pairing through compensatory substitutions have puzzled evolutionary biologists. We reconstructed ancestral sequence histories of RNA sequences and found mutation patterns consistent with template switching in DNA replication. We propose the template switch mutation mechanism as the explanation for the evolution of perfect stem structures and show that the mechanism also provides an elegant explanation for multinucleotide jumps in the sequence space and for the observed asymmetry in the stem base pair frequencies.