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Updated: May 16, 2026

Identifying Amino Acid Overproducers Using Rare-Codon-Rich Markers
Published on: June 24, 2019
Carbon source-dependent expansion of the genetic code in bacteria
Laure Prat1, Ilka U Heinemann, Hans R Aerni
1Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Systems Biology Institute, and Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Acetohalobium arabaticum dynamically expands its genetic code to 21 amino acids, including pyrrolysine (Pyl), in the presence of trimethylamine (TMA). This archaeon uniquely modulates its genetic code size based on environmental cues and energy sources.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Biochemistry
Background:
- The genetic code is generally considered stable within an organism's lifetime.
- While rare variations exist across organisms, cellular genetic code stability is a long-held belief.
- The pyrrolysine (Pyl) system represents a rare expansion of the genetic code.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dynamic expansion of the genetic code in Acetohalobium arabaticum.
- To understand the environmental triggers and regulatory mechanisms for pyrrolysine incorporation.
- To compare Pyl-decoding strategies in archaea and bacteria.
Main Methods:
- Culturing Acetohalobium arabaticum under different conditions (pyruvate vs. TMA).
- Genomic analysis to identify the Pyl operon (pylTSBCD).
- Transcriptional analysis of the Pyl operon.
- Mass spectrometry to identify Pyl residues in proteins.
Main Results:
- Acetohalobium arabaticum expands its genetic code to 21 amino acids, incorporating pyrrolysine (Pyl) in the presence of trimethylamine (TMA).
- A. arabaticum controls Pyl encoding by down-regulating the Pyl operon when TMA is absent, preventing Pyl-tRNA synthesis.
- Pyl incorporation was confirmed in A. arabaticum proteins, including methylamine methyltransferases.
Conclusions:
- Acetohalobium arabaticum is unique in its ability to dynamically modulate its genetic code size in response to environmental factors.
- The organism tightly regulates pyrrolysine incorporation via transcriptional control of the Pyl operon.
- This finding challenges the paradigm of a fixed genetic code within a single organism's lifespan.
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