Widespread position-specific conservation of synonymous rare codons within coding sequences.

ABSTRACT: Synonymous rare codons are considered to be sub-optimal for gene expression because they are translated more slowly than common codons. Yet surprisingly, many protein coding sequences include large clusters of synonymous rare codons. Rare codons at the 5' terminus of coding sequences have been shown to increase translational efficiency. Although a general functional role for synonymous rare codons farther within coding sequences has not yet been established, several recent reports have identified rare-to-common synonymous codon substitutions that impair folding of the encoded protein. Here we test the hypothesis that although the usage frequencies of synonymous codons change from organism to organism, codon rarity will be conserved at specific positions in a set of homologous coding sequen

SUBMITTER: Chaney JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5438181 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature