Codon usage patterns in Chinese bayberry (Myrica rubra) based on RNA-Seq data

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Yue Wang¹  Ming Chen¹  Wen-li Liu²  Xue-ren Yin³  Chang-jie Xu³  Kun-song Chen³  Chao Feng³  Xian Li³ 

[1] Department of Bioinformatics / The State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, 310058, Hangzhou, China;Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang University, 310027, Hangzhou, China;Laboratory of Fruit Quality Biology / The State Agriculture Ministry Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Growth, Development and Quality Improvement, Zhejiang University, 310058, Hangzhou, China;

关键词: RNA-Seq;    Myrica rubra;    Chinese bayberry;    Codon usage;    Codon pairs;    Plant evolution;    Gene ontology classification;    Translation rate;    Gene discovery;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-14-732

 received in 2013-07-23, accepted in 2013-10-21,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCodon usage analysis has been a classical topic for decades and has significances for studies of evolution, mRNA translation, and new gene discovery, etc. While the codon usage varies among different members of the plant kingdom, indicating the necessity for species-specific study, this work has mostly been limited to model organisms. Recently, the development of deep sequencing, especial RNA-Seq, has made it possible to carry out studies in non-model species.ResultRNA-Seq data of Chinese bayberry was analyzed to investigate the bias of codon usage and codon pairs. High frequency codons (AGG, GCU, AAG and GAU), as well as low frequency ones (NCG and NUA codons) were identified, and 397 high frequency codon pairs were observed. Meanwhile, 26 preferred and 141 avoided neighboring codon pairs were also identified, which showed more significant bias than the same pairs with one or more intervening codons. Codon patterns were also analyzed at the plant kingdom, organism and gene levels. Changes during plant evolution were evident using RSCU (relative synonymous codon usage), which was even more significant than GC3s (GC content of 3rd synonymous codons). Nine GO categories were differentially and independently influenced by CAI (codon adaptation index) or GC3s, especially in 'Molecular function’ category. Within a gene, the average CAI increased from 0.720 to 0.785 in the first 50 codons, and then more slowly thereafter. Furthermore, the preferred as well as avoided codons at the position just following the start codon AUG were identified and discussed in relation to the key positions in Kozak sequences.ConclusionA comprehensive codon usage Table and number of high-frequency codon pairs were established. Bias in codon usage as well as in neighboring codon pairs was observed, and the significance of this in avoiding DNA mutation, increasing protein production and regulating protein synthesis rate was proposed. Codon usage patterns at three levels were revealed and the significance in plant evolution analysis, gene function classification, and protein translation start site predication were discussed. This work promotes the study of codon biology, and provides some reference for analysis and comprehensive application of RNA-Seq data from other non-model species.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Feng et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.