Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.

Variation in synonymous codon usage is abundant across multiple levels of organization: between codons of an amino acid, between genes in a genome, and between genomes of different species. It is now well understood that variation in synonymous codon usage is influenced by mutational bias coupled wi...

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Main Authors: Abigail L LaBella, Dana A Opulente, Jacob L Steenwyk, Chris Todd Hittinger, Antonis Rokas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-07-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008304
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author Abigail L LaBella
Dana A Opulente
Jacob L Steenwyk
Chris Todd Hittinger
Antonis Rokas
author_facet Abigail L LaBella
Dana A Opulente
Jacob L Steenwyk
Chris Todd Hittinger
Antonis Rokas
author_sort Abigail L LaBella
collection DOAJ
description Variation in synonymous codon usage is abundant across multiple levels of organization: between codons of an amino acid, between genes in a genome, and between genomes of different species. It is now well understood that variation in synonymous codon usage is influenced by mutational bias coupled with both natural selection for translational efficiency and genetic drift, but how these processes shape patterns of codon usage bias across entire lineages remains unexplored. To address this question, we used a rich genomic data set of 327 species that covers nearly one third of the known biodiversity of the budding yeast subphylum Saccharomycotina. We found that, while genome-wide relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) for all codons was highly correlated with the GC content of the third codon position (GC3), the usage of codons for the amino acids proline, arginine, and glycine was inconsistent with the neutral expectation where mutational bias coupled with genetic drift drive codon usage. Examination between genes' effective numbers of codons and their GC3 contents in individual genomes revealed that nearly a quarter of genes (381,174/1,683,203; 23%), as well as most genomes (308/327; 94%), significantly deviate from the neutral expectation. Finally, by evaluating the imprint of translational selection on codon usage, measured as the degree to which genes' adaptiveness to the tRNA pool were correlated with selective pressure, we show that translational selection is widespread in budding yeast genomes (264/327; 81%). These results suggest that the contribution of translational selection and drift to patterns of synonymous codon usage across budding yeasts varies across codons, genes, and genomes; whereas drift is the primary driver of global codon usage across the subphylum, the codon bias of large numbers of genes in the majority of genomes is influenced by translational selection.
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spelling doaj.art-bfd9bc5316c34008b5735b8f4d73015f2022-12-21T20:45:54ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042019-07-01157e100830410.1371/journal.pgen.1008304Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.Abigail L LaBellaDana A OpulenteJacob L SteenwykChris Todd HittingerAntonis RokasVariation in synonymous codon usage is abundant across multiple levels of organization: between codons of an amino acid, between genes in a genome, and between genomes of different species. It is now well understood that variation in synonymous codon usage is influenced by mutational bias coupled with both natural selection for translational efficiency and genetic drift, but how these processes shape patterns of codon usage bias across entire lineages remains unexplored. To address this question, we used a rich genomic data set of 327 species that covers nearly one third of the known biodiversity of the budding yeast subphylum Saccharomycotina. We found that, while genome-wide relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) for all codons was highly correlated with the GC content of the third codon position (GC3), the usage of codons for the amino acids proline, arginine, and glycine was inconsistent with the neutral expectation where mutational bias coupled with genetic drift drive codon usage. Examination between genes' effective numbers of codons and their GC3 contents in individual genomes revealed that nearly a quarter of genes (381,174/1,683,203; 23%), as well as most genomes (308/327; 94%), significantly deviate from the neutral expectation. Finally, by evaluating the imprint of translational selection on codon usage, measured as the degree to which genes' adaptiveness to the tRNA pool were correlated with selective pressure, we show that translational selection is widespread in budding yeast genomes (264/327; 81%). These results suggest that the contribution of translational selection and drift to patterns of synonymous codon usage across budding yeasts varies across codons, genes, and genomes; whereas drift is the primary driver of global codon usage across the subphylum, the codon bias of large numbers of genes in the majority of genomes is influenced by translational selection.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008304
spellingShingle Abigail L LaBella
Dana A Opulente
Jacob L Steenwyk
Chris Todd Hittinger
Antonis Rokas
Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
PLoS Genetics
title Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
title_full Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
title_fullStr Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
title_full_unstemmed Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
title_short Variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum.
title_sort variation and selection on codon usage bias across an entire subphylum
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008304
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