Third letters in codons counterbalance the (G + C)‐content of their first and second letters

FEBS Letters

Wada, Akiyoshi¹  Suyama, Akira¹ 

[1] Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

关键词: Double helix stability;    Codon usage;    Gene homostabilizing propensity;    DNA;    Codon;   

DOI  :  10.1016/0014-5793(85)80389-6

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

The correlation among the frequencies of appearance of G and C bases at the first, second and third positions of codons is examined. It is found that the redundancy at the wobbling third base is utilized to counter-balance the local (G + C)-content variation due to the first and second bases of codons, so that a homogeneous (G + C)-content is provided to each individual gene. We speculate that this levelling tendency of (G + C)-content comes from the functional constraint to achieve a uniform double-helix stability in a gene.

【 授权许可】

Unknown