Determinants of translation efficiency in the evolutionarily-divergent protist Trichomonas vaginalis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Trichomonas vaginalis, the causative agent of a prevalent urogenital infection in humans, is an evolutionarily divergent protozoan. Protein-coding genes in T. vaginalis are largely controlled by two core promoter elements, producing mRNAs with short 5' UTRs. The specific mechanisms adopted by T. vaginalis to fine-tune the translation efficiency (TE) of mRNAs remain largely unknown.

Results

Using both computational and experimental approaches, this study investigated two key factors influencing TE in T. vaginalis: codon usage and mRNA secondary structure. Statistical dependence between TE and codon adaptation index (CAI) highlighted the impact of codon usage on mRNA translation in T. vaginalis. A genome-wide interrogation revealed that low structural complexity at

SUBMITTER: Wang SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7370421 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature