Codon usage in Giardia lamblia.
A codon usage table for the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia was generated by analysis of the nucleotide sequences of eight genes comprising 3,135 codons. Codon usage revealed a biased use of synonymous codons with a preference for NNC codons (42.1%). The codon usage of G. lamblia more closely resembles that of the prokaryote Halobacterium halobium (correlation coefficient r = 0.73) rather than that of other eukaryotic protozoans, i.e. Trypanosoma brucei (r = 0.434) and Plasmodium falciparum (r = -0.31). These observations are consistent with the view that G. lamblia represents the first line of descent from the ancestral cells that first took on eukaryotic features.
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Department of Gastroenterology, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
Farthing
M J
MJ
D000818:Animals; D003062:Codon; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells; D016829:Giardia lamblia / Q000235:genetics*; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells
D003062:Codon