In article <437ce6$6to at hecate.umd.edu>,
Ram Samudrala (ram at mbisgi.umd.edu) writes:
(I wrote)
>>Sorry if it seems like a bizarre question, but my own feeling is
>>that the codons ought to be conserved even between widely
>>differing species.
>>I don't see any reason for this immediately... my feeling is that
>selection occurs at the protein level, and therefore, as long as the
>mRNA translation leads to a serine, I don't think the organism will
>care much.
I think you misunderstand my point, which was that to get from one
group of codons to the other requires a double-point-mutation,
which would (presumably) be pretty rare. If examples of the Serine
Shift (or Switch) are common, then it might have implications for
our understanding of mutagenesis.
I agree that as long as the protein is OK, the organism is
unlikely to care which codon is there.
Shane McKee (SHO, RVH, Belfast) | / Art becomes science when
Shane at reservoir.win-uk.net --O-- you start trying to figure
/ | out what the heck you're doing
