SUMMARY Codon optimization has been widely used for designing synthetic genes to improve their expression in heterologous host organisms. However, most of the existing codon optimization tools consider a single design criterion and/or implement a rather rigid user interface to yield only one optimal sequence, which may not be the best solution. Hence, we have developed Codon Optimization OnLine...

Adaptation in the overall codon usage pattern of West Nile virus (WNV) to that of two hosts was estimated based on the synonymous codon usage value (RSCU). Synonymous codon usage biases for the beginning coding sequence of this virus were also analyzed by calculating the usage fluctuation for each synonymous codon along the target region (the first 270 codon sites of the whole coding sequence o...

Highly expressed genes in many bacteria and small eukaryotes often have a strong compositional bias, in terms of codon usage. Two widely used numerical indices, the codon adaptation index (CAI) and the codon usage, use this bias to predict the expression level of genes. Both indices are based on fairly simple assumptions about which genes are most highly expressed, which were known when they we...

In this paper, we analyzed the UL43 gene of duck plague virus (DPV) of codon usage bias. The results may provide a basis for understanding the evolution and pathogenesis of DPV and for selecting appropriate host expression systems to improve the expression of target gene in vitro. In this study, the synonymous codon usage bias of UL43 gene in the 24 herpesviruses have been analyzed and the resu...

The rbcL (ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase oxygenase) gene plays a crucial role in carbon fixation. Previous studies shed light on its evolutionary relationship among different Phyla. Here, authors have done a comparative study of rbcL genes among proteobacteria, archaea, cyanobacteria and plants based on their compositional variations (GC%, amino acid frequency, codon usage, etc.). In addi...

1 Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2 Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 3 Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and 4 Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Correspon...

Highly expressed genes in many bacteria and small eukaryotes often have a strong compositional bias, in terms of codon usage. Two widely used numerical indices, the codon adaptation index (CAI) and the codon usage, use this bias to predict the expression level of genes. When these indices were first introduced, they were based on fairly simple assumptions about which genes are most highly expre...

BACKGROUND Mitochondrial ND gene, which encodes NADH dehydrogenase, is the first enzyme of the mitochondrial electron transport chain. Leigh syndrome, a neurodegenerative disease caused by mutation in the ND2 gene (T4681C), is associated with bilateral symmetric lesions in basal ganglia and subcortical brain regions. Therefore, it is of interest to analyze mitochondrial DNA to glean information...

PURPOSE To analyse codon usage patterns of five complete genomes of Salmonella , predict highly expressed genes, examine horizontally transferred pathogenicity-related genes to detect their presence in the strains, and scrutinize the nature of highly expressed genes to infer upon their lifestyle. METHODS Protein coding genes, ribosomal protein genes, and pathogenicity-related genes were analy...

New and simple numerical criteria based on a codon adaptation index are applied to the complete genomic sequences of 80 Eubacteria and 16 Archaea, to infer weak and strong genome tendencies toward content bias, translational bias, and strand bias. These criteria can be applied to all microbial genomes, even those for which little biological information is known, and a codon bias signature, that...