Unusual Codon Bias in Vinyl Chloride Reductase Genes of Dehalococcoides Species
Paul J. McMurdiea, Sebastian Behrensa, Susan Holmesb, Alfred Michael Spormanna c d✉
- aDepartments of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- bStatistics
- cBiological Sciences
- dGeological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5429
- ✉Corresponding author
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Abstract
Vinyl chloride reductases (VC-RDase) are the key enzymes for complete microbial reductive dehalogenation of chloroethenes, including the groundwater pollutants tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene. Analysis of the codon usage of the VC-RDase genes vcrA and bvcA showed that these genes are highly unusual and are characterized by a low G+C fraction at the third position. The third position of codons in VC-RDase genes is biased toward the nucleotide T, even though available Dehalococcoides genome sequences indicate the absence of any tRNAs matching codons that end in T. The comparatively high level of abnormality in the codon usage of VC-RDase genes suggests an evolutionary history that is different from that of most other Dehalococcoides genes.
TL;DRAnalysis of the codon usage of the VC-RDase genes vcrA and bvcA showed that these genes are highly unusual and are characterized by a low G+C fraction at the third position. (Semantic Scholar)