Expression levels influence ribosomal frameshifting at the tandem rare arginine codons AGG_AGG and AGA_AGA in Escherichia coli

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College School of Medicine
Department Human Genetics
Creator Gesteland, Raymond F.; Baranov, Pavel V.; Atkins, John F.
Other Author Gurvich, Olga L.
Title Expression levels influence ribosomal frameshifting at the tandem rare arginine codons AGG_AGG and AGA_AGA in Escherichia coli
Date 2005
Description ABSTRACT: The rare codons AGG and AGA comprise 2% and 4%, respectively, of the arginine codons of Escherichia coli K-12, and their cognate tRNAs are sparse. At tandem occurrences of either rare codon, the paucity of cognate aminoacyl tRNAs for the second codon of the pair facilitates peptidyl-tRNA shifting to the _x0001_1 frame. However, AGG_AGG and AGA_AGA are not underrepresented and occur 4 and 42 times, respectively, in E. coli genes. Searches for corresponding occurrences in other bacteria provide no strong support for the functional utilization of frameshifting at these sequences. All sequences tested in their native context showed 1.5 to 11% frameshifting when expressed from multicopy plasmids. A cassette with one of these sequences singly integrated into the chromosome in stringent cells gave 0.9% frameshifting in contrast to two- to four-times-higher values obtained from multicopy plasmids in stringent cells and eight-times-higher values in relaxed cells. Thus, _x0001_1 frameshifting efficiency at AGG_AGG and AGA_AGA is influenced by the mRNA expression level. These tandem rare codons do not occur in highly expressed mRNAs.
Type Text
Publisher American Society for Microbiology
Volume 187
Issue 12
First Page 4023
Last Page 4032
Subject Gene expression; Frameshifting; E. coli; Arginine codons
Subject MESH Arginine; Codon; Aminoacyltransferases
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Gurvich OL, Baranov PV, Gesteland RF, Atkins JF. 2005. Expression levels influence ribosomal frameshifting at the tandem rare arginine codons AGG_AGG and AGA_AGA in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 187(12):4023-32
Rights Management (c)American Society for Microbiology
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 199,277 Bytes
Identifier ir-main,3778
ARK ark:/87278/s6j68100
Setname ir_uspace
ID 702568
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6j68100
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