title: Universal pattern and diverse strengths of successive synonymous codon bias in three domains of life, particularly among prokaryotic genomes.
abstract: There has been significant progress in understanding the process of protein translation in recent years. One of the best examples is the discovery of usage bias in successive synonymous codons and its role in eukaryotic translation efficiency. We observed here a similar type of bias in the other two life domains, bacteria and archaea, although the bias strength was much smaller than in eukaryotes. Among 136 prokaryotic genomes, 98 were found to have significant bias from random use of successive synonymous codons with Z scores larger than three. Furthermore, significantly different bias strengths were found between prokaryotes grouped by various genomic or biochemical characteristics. Interestingly, the bias strength measured by a general Z score could be fitted well (R = 0.83, P < 10(-15)) by three genomic variables: genome size, G + C content, and tRNA gene number based on multiple linear regression. A different distribution of synonymous codon pairs between protein-coding genes and intergenic sequences suggests that bias is caused by translation selection. The present results indicate that protein translation is tuned by codon (pair) usage, and the intensity of the regulation is associated with genome size, tRNA gene number, and G + C content.
authors.affiliation: Center of Bioinformatics and Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. fbguo@uestc.edu.cn
authors.forename: Feng-Biao
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Yuan-Nong
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Hai-Long
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D001482:Base Composition; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics*; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018628:Gene Dosage; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D059646:Genome Size; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D012343:RNA, Transfer