Analysis of Codon Usage Patterns in Toxic Dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense through Expressed Sequence Tag Data

We have analyzed synonymous codon usage in the genome of A. tamarense CCMP 1598 for protein-coding sequences from 10865 expressed sequence tags (ESTs). We reconstructed a total of 4284 unigenes, including 74 ribosomal protein and 40 plastid-related genes, from ESTs using FrameDP, an open reading frame (ORF) prediction program. Correspondence analysis of A. tamarense genes based on codon usage showed that the GC content at the third base of synonymous codons (GC3s) was strongly correlated with the first axis (r = 0.93 with P < .001). On the other hand, the second axis discriminated between presumed highly and low expressed genes, with expression levels being confirmed by the analysis of EST frequencies (r = -0.89 with P < .001). Our results suggest that mutational bias is the major factor in shaping codon usage in A. tamarense genome, but other factors, namely, translational selection, hydropathy, and aromaticity, also appear to influence the selection of codon usage in this species.