Optimal Evolution of the Standard Genetic Code

Abstract

AbstractThe Standard Genetic Code (SGC) exists in every known organism on Earth. SGC evolution via early unique codon assignment, then later wobble, yields coding resembling the near-universal code. Below, later wobble is shown to also create an optimal route to accurate codon assignment. Time of optimal codon assignment matches the previously defined mean time for ordered coding, exhibiting ≥ 90% of SGC order. Accurate evolution is also accessible, sufficiently frequent to appear in populations of 103 to 104 codes. SGC-like coding capacity, code order, and accurate assignments therefore arise together, in one attainable evolutionary intermediate. Examples, which plausibly resemble coding at evolutionary domain separation, are characterized.