Abstract:
BACKGROUND:The hypothesis of an RNA-based origin of life, known as the "RNA world", is strongly affected by the hostile environmental conditions probably present in the early Earth. In particular, strong UV and X-ray radiations could have been a major obstacle to the formation and evolution of the first biomolecules. In 1951, J. D. Bernal first proposed that clay minerals could have served as the sites of accumulation and protection from degradation of the first biopolymers, providing the right physical setting for the evolution of more complex systems. Numerous subsequent experimental studies have reinforced this hypothesis. RESULTS:The ability of the possibly widespread prebiotic, clay mineral montmorillonite to protect the catalytic RNA molecule ADHR1 (Adenine Dependent Hairpin Ribozyme 1) from UV-induced damages was experimentally checked. In particular, the self-cleavage reaction of the ribozyme was evaluated after UV-irradiation of the molecule in the absence or presence of clay particles. Results obtained showed a three-fold retention of the self-cleavage activity of the montmorillonite-protected molecule, with respect to the same reaction performed by the ribozyme irradiated in the absence of the clay. CONCLUSION:These results provide a suggestion with which RNA, or RNA-like molecules, could have overcame the problem of protection from UV irradiation in the RNA world era, and suggest that a clay-rich environment could have favoured not only the formation of first genetic molecules, but also their evolution towards increasingly complex molecular organization.
journal_name
BMC Evol Bioljournal_title
BMC evolutionary biologyauthors
Biondi E,Branciamore S,Maurel MC,Gallori Edoi
10.1186/1471-2148-7-S2-S2subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2007-08-16 00:00:00pages
S2issn
1471-2148pii
1471-2148-7-S2-S2journal_volume
7 Suppl 2pub_type
杂志文章abstract:BACKGROUND:Anthropogenic factors can have a major impact on the contemporary distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity. Many freshwater fishes have finely structured and locally adapted populations, but their natural genetic structure can be affected by river engineering schemes across river basins, fish transfer...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-018-1219-9
更新日期:2018-07-04 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Knowledge about the distribution of the genetic variation of marine species is fundamental to address species conservation and management strategies, especially in scenarios with mass mortalities. In the Mediterranean Sea, Petrosia ficiformis is one of the species most affected by temperature-related disease...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-018-1343-6
更新日期:2019-01-16 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Recent studies have revealed an unexpected diversity of domain architecture among FcR-like receptors that presumably fulfill regulatory functions in the immune system. Different species of mammals, as well as chicken and catfish have been found to possess strikingly different sets of these receptors. To bett...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-148
更新日期:2008-05-16 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Effects of polyploidisation on gene flow between natural populations are little known. Central European diploid and tetraploid populations of Arabidopsis arenosa and A. lyrata are here used to study interspecific and interploidal gene flow, using a combination of nuclear and plastid markers. RESULTS:Ploidal...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-346
更新日期:2011-11-29 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Orange jasmine has a complex nomenclatural history and is now known as Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack. Our interest in this common ornamental stemmed from the need to resolve its identity and the identities of closely related taxa as hosts of the pathogen 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' and its vector Diap...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1555-4
更新日期:2019-12-30 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Maternally inherited endosymbionts like Wolbachia pipientis are in linkage disequilibrium with the mtDNA of their hosts. Therefore, they can induce selective sweeps, decreasing genetic diversity over many generations. This sex ratio distorter, that is involved in the origin of parthenogenesis and other repro...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-340
更新日期:2010-11-04 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Widely used substitution models for proteins, such as the Jones-Taylor-Thornton (JTT) or Whelan and Goldman (WAG) models, are based on empirical amino acid interchange matrices estimated from databases of protein alignments that incorporate the average amino acid frequencies of the data set under examination...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-331
更新日期:2008-12-16 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Interspecies animal hybrids can employ clonal or hemiclonal reproduction modes where one or all parental genomes are transmitted to the progeny without recombination. Nevertheless, some interspecies hybrids retain strong connection with the parental species needed for successful reproduction. Appearance of p...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1063-3
更新日期:2017-10-17 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The evolution of insecticide resistance and persistence of resistance phenotypes are influenced by the fitness of resistance alleles in the absence of insecticide pressure. Experimental determination of fitness is difficult, but fitness can be inferred by measuring changes in allele frequencies in appropriat...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-42
更新日期:2009-02-19 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:RNA molecules, through their dual appearance as sequence and structure, represent a suitable model to study evolutionary properties of quasispecies. The essential ingredient in this model is the differentiation between genotype (molecular sequences which are affected by mutation) and phenotype (molecular str...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-110
更新日期:2007-07-09 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Hotspots of angiosperm species richness and endemism in Mediterranean-climate regions are among the most striking, but least well-understood, geographic patterns of biodiversity. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of rapid diversification within hotspots, compared to non-hotspot regions, as a majo...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-155
更新日期:2013-08-19 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Although most insect species are specialized on one or few groups of plants, there are phytophagous insects that seem to use virtually any kind of plant as food. Understanding the nature of this ability to feed on a wide repertoire of plants is crucial for the control of pest species and for the elucidation ...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0627-y
更新日期:2016-03-08 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL; E.C.4.3.1.5) is a key enzyme of the phenylpropanoid pathway in plant development, and it catalyses the deamination of phenylalanine to trans-cinnamic acid, leading to the production of secondary metabolites. This enzyme has been identified in many organisms, ranging from pro...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-14-100
更新日期:2014-05-09 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The Carpathians and the Alps are the largest mountain ranges of the European Alpine System and important centres of endemism. Among the distinctive endemic species of this area is Saxifraga wahlenbergii, a Western Carpathians member of the speciose genus Saxifraga. It was frequently considered a taxonomicall...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1355-x
更新日期:2019-01-11 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Integron systems are now recognized as important agents of bacterial evolution and are prevalent in most environments. One of the human pathogens known to harbor chromosomal integrons, the Treponema spirochetes are the only clade among spirochete species found to carry integrons. With the recent release of m...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-16
更新日期:2013-01-22 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Dispersal is often associated with a suite of phenotypic traits that might reduce dispersal costs, but can be energetically costly themselves outside dispersal. Hence, dispersing and philopatric individuals might differ throughout their life cycle in their management of energy production. Because higher ener...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0697-x
更新日期:2016-06-14 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:A protein-protein interaction network (PIN) was suggested to be a disassortative network, in which interactions between high- and low-degree nodes are favored while hub-hub interactions are suppressed. It was postulated that a disassortative structure minimizes unfavorable cross-talks between different hub-c...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-358
更新日期:2010-11-18 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:GATA transcription factors influence many developmental processes, including the specification of embryonic germ layers. The GATA gene family has significantly expanded in many animal lineages: whereas diverse cnidarians have only one GATA transcription factor, six GATA genes have been identified in many ver...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-207
更新日期:2009-08-20 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The plastid is a semiautonomous organelle with its own genome. Plastid genomes have been widely used as models for studying phylogeny, speciation and adaptive evolution. However, most studies focus on comparisons of plastid genome evolution at high taxonomic levels, and comparative studies of the process of ...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1384-5
更新日期:2019-02-26 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:In gnathostomes, chemosensory receptors (CR) expressed in olfactory epithelia are encoded by evolutionarily dynamic gene families encoding odorant receptors (OR), trace amine-associated receptors (TAAR), V1Rs and V2Rs. A limited number of OR-like sequences have been found in invertebrate chordate genomes. Wh...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-180
更新日期:2009-07-31 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The fern genus Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae) is among the most common and species rich fern genera in temperate forests in the northern hemisphere containing 225-300 species worldwide. The circumscription of Dryopteris has been controversial and various related genera have, over the time, been included in and...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-180
更新日期:2012-09-13 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Very little is known on how changes in circadian rhythms evolve. The noctuid moth Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) consists of two strains that exhibit allochronic differentiation in their mating time, which acts as a premating isolation barrier between the strains. We investigated the genetic ...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0911-5
更新日期:2017-03-06 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The Neotropical Region is known for its biodiversity and ranks third in number of known termite species. However, biogeographic and phylogeographic information of termites of this region is limited compared to other world geographic regions. Nasutitermes corniger is widely distributed in the region and is of...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-017-1079-8
更新日期:2017-11-23 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:The LysM receptor-like kinases (LysM-RLKs) are important to both plant defense and symbiosis. Previous studies described three clades of LysM-RLKs: LysM-I/LYKs (10+ exons per gene and containing conserved kinase residues), LysM-II/LYRs (1-5 exons per gene, lacking conserved kinase residues), and LysM-III (tw...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1467-3
更新日期:2019-07-11 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Many groups of land snails show great interspecific diversity in shell ornamentation, which may include spines on the shell and flanges on the aperture. Such structures have been explained as camouflage or defence, but the possibility that they might be under sexual selection has not previously been explored...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-3-13
更新日期:2003-06-05 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Patterns of genetic diversity between and within natural plant populations and their driving forces are of great interest in evolutionary biology. However, few studies have been performed on the genetic structure and population divergence in wild emmer wheat using a large number of EST-related single nucleot...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-169
更新日期:2013-08-13 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Horizontal gene transfer plays an important role in evolution because it sometimes allows recipient lineages to adapt to new ecological niches. High genes transfer frequencies were inferred for prokaryotic and early eukaryotic evolution. Does horizontal gene transfer also impact phylogenetic reconstruction o...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-45
更新日期:2007-03-21 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Aphids are striking in their prodigious reproductive capacity and reliance on microbial endosymbionts, which provision their hosts with necessary amino acids and provide protection against parasites and heat stress. Perhaps as a result of this bacterial dependence, aphids have limited immune function that ma...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-251
更新日期:2010-08-17 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Rosids are a major clade in the angiosperms containing 13 orders and about one-third of angiosperm species. Recent molecular analyses recognized two major groups (i.e., fabids with seven orders and malvids with three orders). However, phylogenetic relationships within the two groups and among fabids, malvids...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-217
更新日期:2007-11-10 00:00:00
abstract:BACKGROUND:Gene duplication and subsequent functional divergence especially expression divergence have been widely considered as main sources for evolutionary innovations. Many studies evidenced that genetic regulatory network evolved rapidly shortly after gene duplication, thus leading to accelerated expression diverg...
journal_title:BMC evolutionary biology
pub_type: 杂志文章
doi:10.1186/1471-2148-12-111
更新日期:2012-07-09 00:00:00