Frequent occurrence of recognition Site-like sequences in the restriction endonucleases

BACKGROUND: There are two different theories about the development of the genetic code. Woese suggested that it was developed in connection with the amino acid repertoire, while Crick argued that any connection between codons and amino acids is only the result of an "accident". This question is fundamental to understand the nature of specific protein-nucleic acid interactions. RESULTS: The nature of specific protein-nucleic acid interaction between restriction endonucleases (RE) and their recognition sequences (RS) was studied by bioinformatics methods. It was found that the frequency of 5–6 residue long RS-like oligonucleotides is unexpectedly high in the nucleic acid sequence of the corresponding RE (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001 respectively, n = 7). There is an extensive conservation of these RS-like sequences in RE isoschizomers. A review of the seven available crystallographic studies showed that the amino acids coded by codons that are subsets of recognition sequences were often closely located to the RS itself and they were in many cases directly adjacent to the codon-like triplets in the RS. Fifty-five examples of this codon-amino acid co-localization are found and analyzed, which represents 41.5% of total 132 amino acids which are localized within 8 Å distance to the C1' atoms in the DNA. The average distance between the closest atoms in the codons and amino acids is 5.5 +/- 0.2 Å (mean +/- S.E.M, n = 55), while the distance between the nitrogen and oxygen atoms of the co-localized molecules is significantly shorter, (3.4 +/- 0.2 Å, p < 0.001, n = 15), when positively charged amino acids are involved. This is indicating that an interaction between the nucleic- and amino acids might occur. CONCLUSION: We interpret these results in favor of Woese and suggest that the genetic code is "rational" and there is a stereospecific relationship between the codes and the amino acids

Nucleic acid chaperons: a theory of an RNA-assisted protein folding

BACKGROUND: Proteins are assumed to contain all the information necessary for unambiguous folding (Anfinsen's principle). However, ab initio structure prediction is often not successful because the amino acid sequence itself is not sufficient to guide between endless folding possibilities. It seems to be a logical to try to find the "missing" information in nucleic acids, in the redundant codon base. RESULTS: mRNA energy dot plots and protein residue contact maps were found to be rather similar. The structure of mRNA is also conserved if the protein structure is conserved, even if the sequence similarity is low. These observations led me to suppose that some similarity might exist between nucleic acid and protein folding. I found that amino acid pairs, which are co-located in the protein structure, are preferentially coded by complementary codons. This codon complementarity is not perfect; it is suboptimal where the 1st and 3rd codon residues are complementary to each other in reverse orientation, while the 2nd codon letters may be, but are not necessarily, complementary. CONCLUSION: Partial complementary coding of co-locating amino acids in protein structures suggests that mRNA assists in protein folding and functions not only as a template but even as a chaperon during translation. This function explains the role of wobble bases and answers the mystery of why we have a redundant codon base

SeqX: a tool to detect, analyze and visualize residue co-locations in protein and nucleic acid structures

BACKGROUND: The interacting residues of protein and nucleic acid sequences are close to each other – they are co-located. Structure databases (like Protein Data Bank, PDB and Nucleic Acid Data Bank, NDB) contain all information about these co-locations; however it is not an easy task to penetrate this complex information. We developed a JAVA tool, called SeqX for this purpose. RESULTS: SeqX tool is useful to detect, analyze and visualize residue co-locations in protein and nucleic acid structures. The user a. selects a structure from PDB; b. chooses an atom that is commonly present in every residues of the nucleic acid and/or protein structure(s) c. defines a distance from these atoms (3–15 Å). The SeqX tool detects every residue that is located within the defined distances from the defined "backbone" atom(s); provides a DotPlot-like visualization (Residues Contact Map), and calculates the frequency of every possible residue pairs (Residue Contact Table) in the observed structure. It is possible to exclude +/- 1 to 10 neighbor residues in the same polymeric chain from detection, which greatly improves the specificity of detections (up to 60% when tested on dsDNA). Results obtained on protein structures showed highly significant correlations with results obtained from literature (p < 0.0001, n = 210, four different subsets). The co-location frequency of physico-chemically compatible amino acids is significantly higher than is calculated and expected in random protein sequences (p < 0.0001, n = 80). CONCLUSION: The tool is simple and easy to use and provides a quick and reliable visualization and analyses of residue co-locations in protein and nucleic acid structures. AVAILABILITY AND REQUIREMENTS: SeqX, Java J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 (available from [see Additional file 1] ) and at least a 1 GHz processor and with a minimum 256 Mb RAM. Source codes are available from the authors

Correlation between nucleotide composition and folding energy of coding sequences with special attention to wobble bases

Background: The secondary structure and complexity of mRNA influences its accessibility to regulatory molecules (proteins, micro-RNAs), its stability and its level of expression. The mobile elements of the RNA sequence, the wobble bases, are expected to regulate the formation of structures encompassing coding sequences. Results: The sequence/folding energy (FE) relationship was studied by statistical, bioinformatic methods in 90 CDS containing 26,370 codons. I found that the FE (dG) associated with coding sequences is significant and negative (407 kcal/1000 bases, mean +/- S.E.M.) indicating that these sequences are able to form structures. However, the FE has only a small free component, less than 10% of the total. The contribution of the 1st and 3rd codon bases to the FE is larger than the contribution of the 2nd (central) bases. It is possible to achieve a ~ 4-fold change in FE by altering the wobble bases in synonymous codons. The sequence/FE relationship can be described with a simple algorithm, and the total FE can be predicted solely from the sequence composition of the nucleic acid. The contributions of different synonymous codons to the FE are additive and one codon cannot replace another. The accumulated contributions of synonymous codons of an amino acid to the total folding energy of an mRNA is strongly correlated to the relative amount of that amino acid in the translated protein. Conclusion: Synonymous codons are not interchangable with regard to their role in determining the mRNA FE and the relative amounts of amino acids in the translated protein, even if they are indistinguishable in respect of amino acid coding.Comment: 14 pages including 6 figures and 1 tabl

The concept of RNA-assisted protein folding: the role of tRNA

We suggest that tRNA actively participates in the transfer of 3D information from mRNA to peptides - in addition to its well-known, "classical" role of translating the 3-letter RNA codes into the one letter protein code. The tRNA molecule displays a series of thermodynamically favored configurations during translation, a movement which places the codon and coded amino acids in proximity to each other and make physical contact between some amino acids and their codons possible. This specific codon-amino acid interaction of some selected amino acids is necessary for the transfer of spatial information from mRNA to coded proteins, and is known as RNA-assisted protein folding

The Proteomic Code: a molecular recognition code for proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Proteomic Code is a set of rules by which information in genetic material is transferred into the physico-chemical properties of amino acids. It determines how individual amino acids interact with each other during folding and in specific protein-protein interactions. The Proteomic Code is part of the redundant Genetic Code.</p> <p>Review</p> <p>The 25-year-old history of this concept is reviewed from the first independent suggestions by Biro and Mekler, through the works of Blalock, Root-Bernstein, Siemion, Miller and others, followed by the discovery of a Common Periodic Table of Codons and Nucleic Acids in 2003 and culminating in the recent conceptualization of partial complementary coding of interacting amino acids as well as the theory of the nucleic acid-assisted protein folding.</p> <p>Methods and conclusions</p> <p>A novel cloning method for the design and production of specific, high-affinity-reacting proteins (SHARP) is presented. This method is based on the concept of proteomic codes and is suitable for large-scale, industrial production of specifically interacting peptides.</p

Does codon bias have an evolutionary origin?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is a 3-fold redundancy in the Genetic Code; most amino acids are encoded by more than one codon. These synonymous codons are not used equally; there is a Codon Usage Bias (CUB). This article will provide novel information about the origin and evolution of this bias.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Codon Usage Bias (CUB, defined here as deviation from equal usage of synonymous codons) was studied in 113 species. The average CUB was 29.3 ± 1.1% (S.E.M, n = 113) of the theoretical maximum and declined progressively with evolution and increasing genome complexity. A Pan-Genomic Codon Usage Frequency (CUF) Table was constructed to describe genome-wide relationships among codons. Significant correlations were found between the number of synonymous codons and (i) the frequency of the respective amino acids (ii) the size of CUB. Numerous, statistically highly significant, internal correlations were found among codons and the nucleic acids they comprise. These strong correlations made it possible to predict missing synonymous codons (wobble bases) reliably from the remaining codons or codon residues.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results put the concept of "codon bias" into a novel perspective. The internal connectivity of codons indicates that all synonymous codons might be integrated parts of the Genetic Code with equal importance in maintaining its functional integrity.</p