Codon usage suggests that translational selection has a major impact on protein expression in trypanosomatids.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Different proteins are required in widely different quantities to build a living cell. In most organisms, transcription control makes a major contribution to differential expression. This is not the case in trypanosomatids where most genes are transcribed at an equivalent rate within large polycistronic clusters. Thus, trypanosomatids must use post-transcriptional control mechanisms to balance gene expression requirements.

Results

Here, the evidence for translational selection, the enrichment of 'favoured' codons in more highly expressed genes, is explored. A set of highly expressed, tandem-repeated genes display codon bias in Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania major. The tRNA complement reveals forty-five of the sixty-one possible anticodons ind

SUBMITTER: Horn D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2217535 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature