Codon usage biases in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases

Protein Pept Lett. 2010 May;17(5):630-45. doi: 10.2174/092986610791112666.

Abstract

Establishing codon usage biases are crucial for understanding the etiology of central nervous system neurodegenerative diseases (CNSNDD) especially Alzheimer's disease (AD) as well as genetic factors. G and C ending codons are strongly biased in the coding sequences of these proteins as a result of genomic GC composition constraints. On the other hand, codons that identified as translationally optimal in the major trend all end in C or G, suggesting translational selection should also be taken into consideration additional to compositional constraints. Furthermore, this investigation reveals that three common codons, CGC (Arg), AGC (Ser), and GGC (Gly), are also critical in affecting codon usage bias. They not only can offer an insight into the codon usage bias of AD and its mechanism, but also may help in the possible cures for these diseases.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics*
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
  • Amino Acids / genetics
  • Base Composition
  • Chi-Square Distribution
  • Codon*
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Diabetes Mellitus / genetics
  • Diabetes Mellitus / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases / genetics*
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases / metabolism
  • Proteins / chemistry
  • Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Codon
  • Proteins