Translation of Both Complementary Strands Might Govern Early Evolution of the Genetic Code

The updated structural and phylogenetic analyses of tRNA pairs with complementary anticodons provide independent support for our earlier finding, namely that these tRNA pairs concertedly show complementary second bases in the acceptor stem. Two implications immediately follow: first, that a tRNA molecule gained its present, complete, cloverleaf shape via duplication(s) of a shorter precursor. Second, that common ancestry is shared by two major components of the genetic code within the tRNA molecule--the classic code per se embodied in anticodon triplets, and the operational code of aminoacylation embodied primarily in the first three base pairs of the acceptor stems. In this communication we show that it might have been a double, sense-antisense, in-frame translation of the very first protein-encoding genes that directed the code's earliest expansion, thus preserving this fundamental dual-complementary link between acceptors and anticodons. Furthermore, the dual complementarity appears to be consistent with two mirror-symmetrical modes by which class I and II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases recognize the cognate tRNAs--from the minor and major groove side of the acceptor stem, respectively.