title: Cytosine usage modulates the correlation between CDS length and CG content in prokaryotic genomes.
abstract: Previous studies have argued that, given the AT-rich nature of stop codons, the length and CG% of coding sequences (CDSs) should be positively correlated. This prediction is generally supported empirically by prokaryotic genomes. However, the correlation is weak for a number of species, with 4 species showing a negative correlation. Here we formulate a more general hypothesis incorporating selection against cytosine (C) usage to explain the lack of strong positive correlation between the length and GC% of CDSs. Two factors contribute to the selection against C usage in long CDSs. First, C is the least abundant nucleotide in the cell, and a long CDS should have fewer Cs to increase transcription efficiency. Second, C is prone to mutation to U/T and selection for increased reliability should reduce C usage in long CDSs. Empirical data from prokaryotic genomes lend strong support for this new hypothesis.
authors: Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. xxia@uottawa.ca
authors: Xuhua
authors: X
authors: Xia
authors: Huaichun
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Zheng
authors: Z
authors: Xie
authors: Malisa
authors: M
authors: Carullo
authors: Huang
authors: H
authors: Huang
authors: Donal
authors: D
authors: Hickey