A survey of codon and amino acid frequency bias in microbial genomes focusing on translational efficiency

Rainer Merkl1

  • 1Abteilung Molekulare Genetik und Präparative Molekularbiologie, Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Grisebachstrasse 8, D - 37077 G6ttingen, Germany. rmerkl@gwdg.de

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Base complementarity between the three base pairs of mRNA codon and the tRNA anticodon is not a failsafe mechanism. Inaccuracies can range from a single mismatch to no correct base pairing at all. The free energy difference between the correct and nearly correct base pairs can be as small as 3 kcal/ mol. With complementarity being the only proofreading step, the estimated error frequency would be one wrong amino acid in every 100 amino acids incorporated. However, error frequencies observed in...
Improving Translational Accuracy02:07

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