Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-1-31
pubmed:abstractText
In many organisms, selection acts on synonymous codons to improve translation. However, the precise basis of this selection remains unclear in the majority of species. Selection could be acting to maximize the speed of elongation, to minimize the costs of proofreading, or to maximize the accuracy of translation. Using several data sets, we find evidence that codon use in Escherichia coli is biased to reduce the costs of both missense and nonsense translational errors. Highly conserved sites and genes have higher codon bias than less conserved ones, and codon bias is positively correlated to gene length and production costs, both indicating selection against missense errors. Additionally, codon bias increases along the length of genes, indicating selection against nonsense errors. Doublet mutations or replacement substitutions do not explain our observations. The correlations remain when we control for expression level and for conflicting selection pressures at the start and end of genes. Considering each amino acid by itself confirms our results. We conclude that selection on synonymous codon use in E. coli is largely due to selection for translational accuracy, to reduce the costs of both missense and nonsense errors.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
0737-4038
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
24
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
374-81
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-11-19
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
Synonymous codon usage in Escherichia coli: selection for translational accuracy.
pubmed:affiliation
Ludwig-Maximilan Universität, Biocenter, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany. nstoletzki@googlemail.com
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't