title: Theory of degenerate coding and informational parameters of protein coding genes.
abstract: The theory of degenerate coding is presented in a way enabling further application to molecular biology. There are two kinds of redundancy of a degenerate code. The first is due to the excess in codon length and the second to the code degeneracy. If the code is asymmetrically degenerate, the second kind of redundancy can be profitable for control of error rate. This control can be performed just by selective synonymous codon usage. Utilisation of the genetic code is partially influenced by this theoretical possibility. In particular the degree of error protectivity is well correlated with deviation from equiprobability in synonymous codon usage. The biological significance of this fact is discussed.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D051379:Mice; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D011506:Proteins