TITLE:
The Eight Trigrams of the I Ching Provide a New Avenue for Characterizing the Association between mRNA Codons and the Hydrophobicity of the Encoded Amino Acids
AUTHORS:
Bin Wang
KEYWORDS:
Eight Trigrams, Genetic Code, mRNA Codons, Hydrophobicity, Amino Acids
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.10 No.1,
December
16,
2019
ABSTRACT: The
standard genetic code is nearly universal, and relates the sequence of a
translated messenger RNA (mRNA) to the sequence of amino acids in the resultant
protein. Previous studies have related the second position of the mRNA codon to
the hydrophobicity of the encoded amino acid. The research aim of this study
was to investigate any other relationships that might exist. The author
explored the association between both the first and the second positions of the
mRNA codon with the hydrophobicity of the encoded amino acid based on their
characterization according to the eight trigrams of the I Ching. The author
found that most hydrophilic amino acids are associated with mRNA codons whose
first two bases are in the middle four trigrams and form intermediate or weak
hydrogen bonds with tRNA anticodons, whereas most hydrophobic amino acids are
associated with mRNA codons located at the Yang end (i.e., the first two bases
of the codon are strong followed by strong) or the Yin end (i.e., the first two
bases of the codon are weak followed by weak). The eight trigrams provide a new
avenue for characterizing the association between mRNA codons and the
hydrophobicity of the encoded amino acids.