title: Tandem termination signals: myth or reality?
abstract: In two Escherichia coli genomes, laboratory strain K-12 and pathological strain O157:H7, tandem termination codons as a group are slightly over-represented as termination signals. Individually however, they span the range of representations, over, as expected, or under, in one or both of the strains. In vivo, tandem termination codons do not make more efficient signals. The second codon can act as a backstop where readthrough of the first has occurred, but not at the expected efficiency. UGAUGA remains an enigma, highly over-represented, but with the second UGA a relatively inefficient back up stop codon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Louise L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Major
authors.forename: Tina D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Edgar
authors.forename: Po
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yee Yip
authors.forename: Leif A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Isaksson
authors.forename: Warren P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Tate
mesh_terms: D018388:Codon, Terminator; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences
chemical_list: D018388:Codon, Terminator