多维背包问题的DNA计算

提出了一种基于DNA计算的求解多维背包问题的算法,该算法分两个阶段执行,第一个阶段采用试管方法,分别求出满足各个约束方程的可行域;第二个阶段采用表面方法,对第一个阶段求出的多个可行域取交集,即得满足整个约束方程组的可行域,再比较该可行域中各可行解对应的目标函数值,进而得到最优解。并通过实例分析验证了该算法的有效性和正确性,该算法将试管方法和表面方法结合使用,充分利用了两种方法各自的优点。     

基于PNA的最大独立集问题的DNA计算模型

肤核酸(Peptide Nucleic Acid)是人工合成的拔酸(DNA)的类似物.PNA能够特异地、稳定地与DNA杂交以及其独特的性质,使得PNA广泛应用在分子生物学中.本文提出了一种基于PNA的最大独立集问题的DNA计算模型,利用单链PNA被逐步褪火到单链DNA分子上,解决了一个最大独立集问题的实例.该模型的解空间只有一种类型的DNA分子,计算经m步生物操作产生问题的解(其中m=|E(G)|),最后利用鞭子PCR(whiplash PCR)原理以及凝胶电泳读解.     

The Evolutionary Origin of Biological Function and Complexity

The identification of dynamic kinetic stability (DKS) as a stability kind that governs the evolutionary process for both chemical and biological replicators, opens up new avenues for uncovering the chemical basis of biological phenomena. In this paper, we utilize the DKS concept to explore the chemical roots of two of biology’s central concepts—function and complexity. It is found that the selection rule in the world of persistent replicating systems—from DKS less stable to DKS more stable—is the operational law whose very existence leads to the creation of function from of a world initially devoid of function. The origin of biological complexity is found to be directly related to the origin of function through an underlying connection between the two phenomena. Thus the emergence of both function and complexity during abiogenesis, and their growing expression during biological evolution, are found to be governed by the same single driving force, the drive toward greater DKS. It is reaffirmed that the essence of biological phenomena can be best revealed by uncovering biology’s chemical roots, by elucidating the physicochemical principles that governed the process by which life on earth emerged from inanimate matter.     

Misconceptions About the Evolution of Complexity

Despite data and theory from comparative anatomy, embryology, molecular biology, genomics, and evolutionary developmental biology, antievolutionists continue to present the eye as an example of a structure too complex to have evolved. They stress what we have yet to explain about the development and evolution of eyes and present incomplete information as evidence that evolution is a “theory in crisis.” An examination of the evidence, however, particularly evidence that has accumulated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, refutes antievolutionists’ claims. The distribution of eyes in extant organisms, combined with what we now know about the control of eye development across diverse groups of organisms, provides significant evidence for the evolution of all major components of the eye, from molecular to morphological, and provides an excellent test of predictions based on common ancestry.     

Whole-Genome Duplications in Evolution,Ontogeny, and Pathology: Complexity and Emergency Reserves

Molecular Biology - Whole-genome duplication (WGD), or polyploidy, increases the amount of genetic information in the cell. WGDs of whole organisms are found in all branches of eukaryotes and act...     

Exploring the Biological and Chemical Complexity of the Ligases

Using a novel method to map and cluster chemical reactions, we have re-examined the chemistry of the ligases [Enzyme Commission (EC) Class 6] and their associated protein families in detail. The type of bond formed by the ligase can be automatically extracted from the equation of the reaction, replicating the EC subclass division. However, this subclass division hides considerable complexities, especially for the C–N forming ligases, which fall into at least three distinct types. The lower levels of the EC classification for ligases are somewhat arbitrary in their definition and add little to understanding their chemistry or evolution. By comparing the multi-domain architecture of the enzymes and using sequence similarity networks, we examined the links between overall reaction and evolution of the ligases. These show that, whilst many enzymes that perform the same overall chemistry group together, both convergent (similar function, different ancestral lineage) and divergent (different function, common ancestor) evolution of function are observed. However, a common theme is that a single conserved domain (often the nucleoside triphosphate binding domain) is combined with ancillary domains that provide the variation in substrate binding and function.     

基因沉默与生物进化

基因沉默主要发生在转录水平和转录后水平,它是生物体抵御外来核酸片段入侵、保护基因组完整性并调控基因表达的一种重要机制。以RNA为媒介,以甲基化和特定RNA降解为手段的基因沉默普遍存在于生物界中,暗示其在生物进化过程中可能扮演了重要的角色。文章最后探讨了在基因沉默与生物进化关系研究中可能面临的一些问题。     

Computation of DNA backbone conformations

We present an algorithm for the computation of 2'-deoxyribose-phosphodiester backbone conformations that are stereochemically compatible with a given arrangement of nucleic acid bases in a DNA structure. The algorithm involves the sequential computation of 2'-deoxyribose and phosphodiester conformers (collectively referred to as a backbone 'segment'), beginning at the 5'-end of a DNA strand. Computation of the possible segment conformations is achieved by the initial creation of a fragment library, with each fragment representing a set of bond lengths, bond angles and torsion angles. Following exhaustive searching of sugar conformations, each segment conformation is reduced to a single vector, defined by a specific distance, angle and torsion angle, that allows calculation of the O(1)' position. A given 'allowed' conformation of a backbone segment is determined based on its compatibility with the base positions and with the position of the preceding backbone segment. Initial computation of allowable segment conformations of a strand is followed by the determination of continuous backbone solutions for the strand, beginning at the 3'-end. The algorithm is also able to detect repeating segment conformations that arise in structures containing geometrically repeating dinucleotide steps. To illustrate the utility and properties of the algorithm, we have applied it to a series of experimental DNA structures. Regardless of the conformational complexity of these structures, we are able to compute backbone conformations for each structure. Hence, the algorithm, which is currently implemented within a new computer program NASDAC (Nucleic Acids: Structure, Dynamics and Conformation), should have generally applicability to the computation of DNA structures.     

Complexity of human satellite A DNA

Satellite A DNA of human origin having a molecular weight of eight million daltons has been isolated. This DNA species has a 51% G+C content and is composed of two kinetically distinct reassociating components. On the average the fast component is repeated 1600 times more frequently than the slow component. Nucleolar DNA appears to be significantly enriched in this satellite.     

The Rate of Cu,Zn Superoxide Dismutase Evolution

The rate of amino acid replacement in Cu, Zn SOD greatly departs from the expectations of the molecular clock. We examine 27 Cu, Zn SOD sequences available and conclude that: (I) the SOD enzymes from different mammal families differ from each other by roughly the same number of replacements, which is consistent with a simultaneous mammalian radiation; (2) over the most recent 60 million years (MY) the rate of SOD evolution is fairly high (15aa/100aa/100MYR) and may be considered constant; (3) the rate of accumulation of amino acid replacements since the divergence of fungi. plants and animals to the present is inconstant along different branches of the evolutionary tree; moreover it steadily decreases with time, to the same extent in all lineages; (4) some comparisons exhibit divergences that are in any case greater than expected from a Poisson process on the assumption of a molecular clock; (5) plant chloroplast enzymes display fewer differences from each other than cytoplasmic ones; (6) bacteriocuprein (from Photobacterium leiognathi), fluke and human extracellular SOD are all three extremely remotely related to one another and to the SOD of other eukaryotes.

The process of consistent decline of the rate of evolution of Cu. Zn SOD can be described by a number of mathematical functions. We explore simple models that assume constant rates and might be applicable to other proteins or genes that apparently evolve at disparate rates.