Related papers: Genes Preferring Non-AUG Start Codons in Bacteria
Recent experiments and simulations have demonstrated that proteins can fold on the ribosome. However, the extent and generality of fitness effects resulting from co-translational folding remain open questions. Here we report a genome-wide…
The problem of differentiating the informational content of coding (exons) and non-coding (introns) regions of a DNA sequence is one of the central problems of genomics. The introns are estimated to be nearly 95% of the DNA and since they…
The genetic code maps the sixty-four nucleotide triplets (codons) to twenty amino-acids. While the biochemical details of this code were unraveled long ago, its origin is still obscure. We review information-theoretic approaches to the…
Efficient protein synthesis depends on the availability of charged tRNA molecules. With 61 different codons, shifting the balance among the tRNA abundances can lead to large changes in the protein synthesis rate. Previous theoretical work…
We investigated the error-minimization properties of putative primordial codes that consisted of 16 supercodons, with the third base being completely redundant, using a previously derived cost function and the error minimization percentage…
Synthetic genetic circuits are implemented in living cells for their operation. During gene expression, proteins are produced from the respective genes, by formation of complexes through the process of transcription and translation. In…
To regulate a particular gene, a transcription factor (TF) needs to bind a specific genome location. How is this genome address specified amid the presence of ~10^6-10^9 decoy sites? Our analysis of 319 known TF binding motifs clearly…
Motivation: The gene content regulates the biology of an organism. It varies between species and between individuals of the same species. Although tools have been developed to identify gene content changes in bacterial genomes, none is…
Coding information is the main source of heterogeneity (non-randomness) in the sequences of bacterial genomes. This information can be naturally modeled by analysing cluster structures in the "in-phase" triplet distributions of relatively…
We study the length distribution of a particular class of DNA sequences known as 5'UTR exons. These exons belong to the messanger RNA of protein coding genes, but they are not coding (they are located upstream of the coding portion of the…
Deprivation of essential nutrients can have stark consequences for many processes in a cell. We consider amino acid starvation, which can result in bottlenecks in mRNA translation when ribosomes stall due to lack of resources, i.e. tRNAs…
The genetic code markup is the assignment of stop codons. The standard genetic code markup ensures the maximum possible stability of genetic information with respect to two fault classes: frameshift and nonsense mutations. There are only…
Models of codon evolution are commonly used to identify positive selection. Positive selection is typically a heterogeneous process, i.e., it acts on some branches of the evolutionary tree and not others. Previous work on DNA models showed…
Significant fraction (98.5% in humans) of most animal genomes is non- coding dark matter. Its largely unknown function (1-5) is related to programming (rather than to spontaneous mutations) of accurate adaptation to rapidly changing…
Non-genetic forms of antimicrobial drug resistance can result from cell-to-cell variability that is not encoded in the genetic material. Data from recent studies also suggest that non-genetic mechanisms can facilitate the development of…
The set of regulatory interactions between genes, mediated by transcription factors, forms a species' transcriptional regulatory network (TRN). By comparing this network with measured gene expression data one can identify functional…
Non-coding RNA are functional molecules that are not translated into proteins. Their function comes as important regulators of biological function. Because they are not translated, they need not be as stable as other types of RNA. The TKF91…
In this work it is shown that 20 canonical amino acids (AAs) within genetic code appear to be a whole system with strict AAs positions; more exactly, with AAs ordinal number in three variants; first variant 00-19, second 00-21 and third…
A simple explanation for the symmetry and degeneracy of the genetic code has been suggested. An alternative to the wobble hypothesis has been proposed. This hypothesis offers explanations for: i) the difference between thymine and uracil,…
Evolving genomes increase a number of their genes by gene duplications. To escape degradation in a functionless pseudogene, any gene duplicate needs to be guarded by negative (purifying) selection from otherwise inevitable fixation of…