Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus phages: effect of translation initiation efficiency on differential codon adaptation mediated by virulent and temperate lifestyles.

ABSTRACT: Rapid biosynthesis is key to the success of bacteria and viruses. Highly expressed genes in bacteria exhibit a strong codon bias corresponding to the differential availability of tRNAs. However, a large clade of lambdoid coliphages exhibits relatively poor codon adaptation to the host translation machinery, in contrast to other coliphages that exhibit strong codon adaptation to the host. Three possible explanations were previously proposed but dismissed: (1) the phage-borne tRNA genes that reduce the dependence of phage translation on host tRNAs, (2) lack of time needed for evolving codon adaptation due to recent host switching, and (3) strong strand asymmetry with biased mutation disrupting codon adaptation. Here, we examined the possibility that phages with relatively poor codon adaptati

SUBMITTER: Prabhakaran R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4631060 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature