title: Specific codon usage pattern and its implications on the secondary structure of silk fibroin mRNA.
abstract: We have identified two distinctive regions of the repetitive unit nucleotide sequence of fibroin mRNA of Bombyx mori. The codon usage for the major amino acids, glycine, alanine and serine is distinctly different in these two regions, indicating that it is determined by the fibroin mRNA or gene structure but not by the tRNA population. Comparative computer analyses of nucleotide substitutions in the unit sequence suggest that selection has operated on the codon usage to optimize the secondary structure characteristic of the fibroin mRNA.
authors.affiliation: Division of Chemistry, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ichimura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zama
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: James
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics*; D003062:Codon; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000235:genetics; D005349:Fibroins / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D004270:DNA, Circular; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D005349:Fibroins