Appendix to Paper by Wall and Herbeck

A method is described for determining the number of preferred codons in taxa in which G+C levels differ. If the hypothesis of random codon usage is not rejected, there are no preferred codons. If that hypothesis is rejected, then a model with one or two preferred codons is fitted to the data and a likelihood ratio test is used to determine whether there are one or two preferred codons. A C++ program is freely available to perform the calculations.     

High-level production of recombinant human IFN-α2a with co-expression of tRNAArg(AGG/AGA) in high-cell-density cultures ofEscherichia coli

The co-expression of theargU gene in a double-vector expression system of recombinantEscherichia coli BL21(DE3)[pET-IFN2a+pAC-argU] significantly enhanced the production level of recombinant human interferon-α2a (rhIFN-α2a) in high cell density cultures compared to a recombinantE coli culture containing only the single expression vector, pET-IFN2a. The dry cell mass concentration increased to almost 100 g/L, and more than 4 g/L of rhIFN-α2a was accumulated in the culture broth. Evidently, the synthesis of rhIFN-α2a was strongly dependent on the pre-induction growth rate and more efficient at a higher specific growth rate. The additional supply of tRNA^Arg(AGG/AGA) enhanced the expression level of the rhIFN-α2a gene in the early stage of the post-induction phase, yet thereafter the specific production rate of rhIFN-α2a rapidly decreased due to severe segregational instability of plasmid vector pET-IFN2a. It would appear that the plasmid instability, which only occurred to pET-IFN2a in the double vector system, was related to the effect of translational stress due to the overexpression of rhIFN-α2a.     

Expression in Escherichia coli of Biphenyl 2,3-Dioxygenase Genes from a Gram-Positive Polychlorinated Biphenyl Degrader,Rhodococcus jostii RHA1

Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 is a polychlorinated biphenyl degrader. Multi-component biphenyl 2,3-dioxygenase (BphA) genes of RHA1 encode large and small subunits of oxygenase component and ferredoxin and reductase components. They did not express enzyme activity in Escherichia coli. To obtain BphA activity in E. coli, hybrid BphA gene derivatives were constructed by replacing ferredoxin and/or reductase component genes of RHA1 with those of Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes KF707. The results obtained indicate a lack of catalytic activity of the RHA1 ferredoxin component gene, bphAc in E. coli. To determine the cause of inability of RHA1 bphAc to express in E. coli, the bphAc gene was introduced into Rosetta (DE3) pLacI, which has extra tRNA genes for rare codons in E. coli. The resulting strain abundantly produced the bphAc product, and showed activity. These results suggest that codon usage bias is involved in inability of RHA1 bphAc to express its catalytic activity in E. coli.     

Nucleosomal Positioning and Genetic Divergence Study Based on DNA Flexibility Map

Abstract

Based on worm like chain model, DNA structural parameters—tilt, roll and rise, derived from crystallographic database have been used to determine the flexibility of DNA that regulates the nucleosomal translational positioning. Theoretically derived data has been compared to the experimental values available in Ioshikhes and Trifonov's database. The methodology has been extended to determine the flexibility of 18S rRNA genome in eukarya, where yeast shows a distinct difference when compared with mammals like human, mouse and rabbit.     

Evolution of tryptophan biosynthetic pathway in microbial genomes: a comparative genetic study

Biosynthetic pathway evolution needs to consider the evolution of a group of genes that code for enzymes catalysing the multiple chemical reaction steps leading to the final end product. Tryptophan biosynthetic pathway has five chemical reaction steps that are highly conserved in diverse microbial genomes, though the genes of the pathway enzymes show considerable variations in arrangements, operon structure (gene fusion and splitting) and regulation. We use a combined bioinformatic and statistical analyses approach to address the question if the pathway genes from different microbial genomes, belonging to a wide range of groups, show similar evolutionary relationships within and between them. Our analyses involved detailed study of gene organization (fusion/splitting events), base composition, relative synonymous codon usage pattern of the genes, gene expressivity, amino acid usage, etc. to assess inter- and intra-genic variations, between and within the pathway genes, in diverse group of microorganisms. We describe these genetic and genomic variations in the tryptophan pathway genes in different microorganisms to show the similarities across organisms, and compare the same genes across different organisms to find the possible variability arising possibly due to horizontal gene transfers. Such studies form the basis for moving from single gene evolution to pathway evolutionary studies that are important steps towards understanding the systems biology of intracellular pathways.     

Codon Usage in Pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica

Summary An analysis of 4680 codons expressed by pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica showed the A+U content of coding sequences to be 67%. The preference for A+U resulted in an unusual codon usage with an A+U content of 84% in the third codon position. The data show a remarkable similarity to those obtained for Plasmodium falciparum.     

普通油茶叶绿体基因组密码子偏好性分析

为了利用叶绿体基因工程技术改良普通油茶的重要经济性状,该研究以普通油茶叶绿体全基因组序列为材料,从中筛选出51条长度大于300 bp且以ATG起始的非重复CDS(Coding DNA Sequence)为对象,利用CodonW软件分析其密码子偏好性。结果表明:密码子第三位GC含量为27.55%,ENC范围在35.23~56.67之间,平均值为46.09;RSCU值大于1.00的密码子数目为30个,其中29个第三位碱基以U或A结尾;中性绘图表明GC12与GC3的相关系数为0.143,相关性不显著,回归系数为0.0573;频数分布显示,55%基因的ENC比值集中分布在0~0.1,25%基因的ENC比值分布在0.1~0.2之间;对应分析结果表明,第一向量轴占10.12%的差异,第二向量轴占9.36%的差异,其余两轴分别占7.97%和7.46%,前4轴累计差异为34.91%。中性绘图、ENC-plot和对应性分析均表明普通油茶叶绿体基因密码子偏好受突变作用,更多受选择的影响。最终取高表达优越密码子和高频密码子共有的CUU、AUU、GUU、GUA、UAA、CAA、AAA、GAC、GAA、CCU、ACU、GCU、GCA、UGU、CGU、AGU、UUG、GGU等18个密码子作为最优密码子。该研究结果为利用叶绿体基因工程技术改良普通油茶重要经济性状奠定了基础。