Information and the evolution of codon bias

The informational properties of biological systems are the subject of much debate and research. I present a general argument in favor of the existence and central importance of information in organisms, followed by a case study of the genetic code (specifically, codon bias) and the translation system from the perspective of information. The codon biases of 831 Bacteria and Archeae are analyzed and modeled as points in a 64-dimensional statistical space. The major results are that (1) codon bias evolution does not follow canonical patterns, and (2) the use of coding space in organsims is a subset of the total possible coding space. These findings imply that codon bias is a unique adaptive mechanism that owes its existence to organisms' use of information in representing genes, and that there is a particularly biological character to the resulting biased coding and information use.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Library & Information Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Wright, Daniel T.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Luthey-Schulten, Zaida A.
• Efron, Miles J.
• Gasser, Les
• Renear, Allen H.

• Information science
• Philosophy of information
• Evolution
• Genetic code
• Codon bias
• Biological information

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 by Daniel T. Wright. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26089

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26089