Evolution based on genome structure: the “diagonal genome universe”

Abstract

The ratios of amino acid to the total amino acids and those of nucleotides to the total nucleotides in genes or genomes are suitable indexes to compare whole gene or genome characteristics based on the large number of nucleotides rather than their sequences. As these ratios are strictly calculated from nucleotide sequences, the values are independent of experimental errors. In the present mini-review, the following themes are approached according to the ratios of amino acids and nucleotides to their total numbers in the genome: prebiotic evolution, the chronological precedence of protein and codon formations, genome evolution, Chargaff’s second pa- rity rule, and the origins of life. Amino acid formation might have initially occurred during pre- biotic evolution, the “amino acid world”, and amino acid polymerization might chronologically precede codon formation at the end of prebiotic evolution. All nucleotide alterations occurred synchronously over the genome during biolo- gical evolution. After establishing primitive lives, all nucleotide alterations have been governed by linear formulae in nuclear and organelle genomes consisting of the double-stranded DNA. When the four nucleotide contents against each individual nucleotide content in organelles are expressed by four linear regression lines representing the diagonal lines of a 0.5 square – the “Diagonal Genome Universe”, evolution obeys Chargaff’s second parity rule. The fact that linear regression lines intersect at a single point su- ggests that all species originated from a single life source.