Differences in codon bias cannot explain differences in translational power among microbes

Background: Translational power is the cellular rate of protein synthesis normalized to the biomass invested in translational machinery. Published data suggest a previously unrecognized pattern: translational power is higher among rapidly growing microbes, and lower among slowly growing microbes. One factor known to affect translational power is biased use of synonymous codons. The correlation within an organism between expression level and degree of codon bias among genes of Escherichia coli and other bacteria capable of rapid growth is commonly attributed to selection for high translational power. Conversely, the absence of such a correlation in some slowly growing microbes has been interpreted as the absence of selection for translational power. Because codon bias caused by translational selection varies between rapidly growing and slowly growing microbes, we investigated whether observed differences in translational power among microbes could be explained entirely by differences i...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2005
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Les Dethlefsen, Thomas M. Schmidt
• Keywords: BMCBI 2005, Codon, Codon Bias, Translational Power