Gene functionality's influence on the second codon: A large-scale survey of second codon composition in three domains.

ABSTRACT

The second codon of a transcript, besides encoding for an amino acid, is now known to also have multiple molecular functions and is involved in translation efficiency and protein turn-over and maturation processing. These multiple purposes therefore make the selection constraints on this codon's composition more complex. To examine the biological significance of various permutations of the second codon, we conducted a systematic survey of second codon composition from 442 selected genomes across three domains. The amino acid bias of the second codon is associated with specific protein functions. The most common amino acids (S, A, K and T) are significantly avoided in Cell Envelope-related genes but preferred in Translation or Energy Metabolism-related genes, suggesting that the function of a gene product is a significant factor influencing the composition of the second codon.