Acta Univ Latv (2008) 745: 187–198

An alternative model of the origin of genes: quantization of intron dimensions

Abstract

More than 30 years after the discovery of split genes the problem of intron origin is not yet completely solved. To study the possible germ of life on Earth we developed a quite different point of view – the third way of origin of genes – as an alternative to the Exon theory of genes and the Insertional theory of intron origin. In accordance to the elaborated model the precursors of primeval genes including segments of the future introns were formed by oligonucleotide multiplication and duplication reactions. The gene precursors without introns and primeval genes with the very first introns were regular periodic nucleic acids containing tandemly repeated identical in size and sequence oligonucleotides. Here we demonstrate several contemporary gene families whose members have retained regularity corresponding to oligonucleotide repeats. Regular segments of these gene structures – peculiar molecular relics – contain exons, introns and intron coordinates whose numerical parameters have identical internal regularity and can be quantized – expressed as multiples of identical size oligonucleotide repeat units. The term „gene quantum” in this case shows the number of nucleotides or base pairs in an oligonucleotide named a repeat unit.