TY - JOUR

T1 - The AGG codon is translated slowly in E. coli even at very low expression levels

AU - Bonekamp, Fons

AU - Jensen, Kaj Frank

PY - 1988

Y1 - 1988

N2 - Data are presented which indicate that AGG codons for arginine are translated significantly more slowly than the CGU codons for the same amino acid even when their expression level from the probe is very low. The two types of codons were inser ted (three in tandem) on a multicopy plasmid in an artificial leader peptide gene in front of the pyrE attenuator where the frequency of transcription termination is regulated by the degree of coupling between transcription and translation. Transcription of the operon is initiated from the lac-promoter dependent on the concentration of the lac-operon inducer IPTG. At all induction levels it was found that the frequency of transcription past the pyrE attenuator was approximately nine times lower when the AGG codons were present in the leader than with CGT codons present. This shows that AGG codons decouple translation from transcription in the pyrE attenuator region even when the concentration of this codon is not increased significantly relative to that in the unperturbed wild type strain. Thus the results indicate that AGG codons are always slowly translated in Eacherichia coli.

AB - Data are presented which indicate that AGG codons for arginine are translated significantly more slowly than the CGU codons for the same amino acid even when their expression level from the probe is very low. The two types of codons were inser ted (three in tandem) on a multicopy plasmid in an artificial leader peptide gene in front of the pyrE attenuator where the frequency of transcription termination is regulated by the degree of coupling between transcription and translation. Transcription of the operon is initiated from the lac-promoter dependent on the concentration of the lac-operon inducer IPTG. At all induction levels it was found that the frequency of transcription past the pyrE attenuator was approximately nine times lower when the AGG codons were present in the leader than with CGT codons present. This shows that AGG codons decouple translation from transcription in the pyrE attenuator region even when the concentration of this codon is not increased significantly relative to that in the unperturbed wild type strain. Thus the results indicate that AGG codons are always slowly translated in Eacherichia coli.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 16

SP - 3013

EP - 3024

JO - Nucleic Acids Research

JF - Nucleic Acids Research

SN - 0305-1048

IS - 7

ER -