Preferred and avoided codon pairs in three domains of life
2008

Codon Pair Preferences in Different Life Forms

Sample size: 138 publication Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Tats Age, Tanel Tenson, Maido Remm

Primary Institution: University of Tartu

Hypothesis

How strong or conserved are the codon context preferences in different organisms?

Conclusion

Translational selection shapes codon pair usage in protein coding sequences by rules that are common to all three domains of life.

Supporting Evidence

  • 95.7% of avoided nnUAnn type patterns contain out-frame UAA or UAG triplets.
  • 288 neighboring codon pairs were preferred or avoided in most organisms.
  • The most frequently avoided codon pairs contain patterns like nnUAnn and nnGGnn.

Takeaway

Different living things use certain pairs of building blocks in their genes more or less often, and this helps them make proteins correctly.

Methodology

Analyzed codon pair usage in 138 organisms from bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes to identify conserved patterns.

Potential Biases

Potential biases in the selection of organisms and the statistical methods used.

Limitations

The study may not cover all organisms, and smaller genomes may lack sufficient codon pairs for statistical significance.

Participant Demographics

138 organisms from bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.01

Statistical Significance

p<0.01

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1471-2164-9-463

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