Site-specific codon bias in bacteria

Abstract

Sequences of the gapA and ompA genes from 10 genera of enterobacteria have been analyzed. There is strong bias in codon usage, but different synonymous codons are preferred at different sites in the same gene. Site-specific preference for unfavored codons in not confined to the first 100 codons and is usually manifest between two codons utilizing the same tRNA. Statistical analyses, based on conclusions reached in an accompanying paper, show that the use of an unfavored codone at a given site in different genera is not due to common descent and must therefore be caused either by sequence-specific mutation or sequence-specific selection. Reasons are given for thinking that sequence-specific mutation cannot be responsible. We are unable to explain the preference between synonymous codons ending in C or T, but synonymous choice between A and G at third sites is largely explained by avoidance of AG-G (where the hyphen indicates the boundary between codons). We also observed that the preferred codon for proline in Enterobacter cloacea has change from CCG to CCA.