title: Effects of codon usage on gene expression: empirical studies on Drosophila.
abstract: For most amino acids, more than one codon can be used. Many hypotheses have been put forward to account for patterns of uneven use of synonymous codons (codon usage bias) that most often have been indirectly tested primarily by analyses of patterns. Direct experimental tests of effects of synonymous codon usage are available for unicellular organisms, however empirical data addressing this problem in multicellular eukaryotes are sparse. We have developed a flexible transfecting plasmid that allows us to empirically test the effects of different codons on transcription and translation and present data from Drosophila. We could detect no significant effects of codon usage on transcription. With regard to translation, optimal codons (most used) produce higher levels of protein expression compared to non-optimal codons if the effect of difference in thermodynamic stability of secondary structure of the 5' mRNA ribosome-binding site is controlled for. These results are consistent with what has been found in bacteria and thus expand the generality of these principles to multicellular eukaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem Street, New Haven, CT, 06520-8105, USA, jeffrey.powell@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Kirstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dion
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003062:Codon; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D036262:Empirical Research; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D012333:RNA, Messenger
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