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. 1982 Jan 11;10(1):391–402. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.1.391

Key for protein coding sequences identification: computer analysis of codon strategy.

F Rodier, J Gabarro-Arpa, R Ehrlich, C Reiss
PMCID: PMC326141  PMID: 7038623

Abstract

The signal qualifying an AUG or GUG as an initiator in mRNAs processed by E. coli ribosomes is not found to be a systematic, literal homology sequence. In contrast, stability analysis reveals that initiators always occur within nucleic acid domains of low stability, for which a high A/U content is observed. Since no aminoacid selection pressure can be detected at N-termini of the proteins, the A/U enrichment results from a biased usage of the code degeneracy. A computer analysis is presented which allows easy detection of the codon strategy. N-terminal codons carry rather systematically A or U in third position, which suggests a mechanism for translation initiation and helps to detect protein coding sequences in sequenced DNA.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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