Genome Research

Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lao, P. J.
Right arrow Articles by Forsdyke, D. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lao, P. J.
Right arrow Articles by Forsdyke, D. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Vol. 10, Issue 2, 228-236, February 2000

LETTER
Thermophilic Bacteria Strictly Obey Szybalski's Transcription Direction Rule and Politely Purine-Load RNAs with Both Adenine and Guanine

Perry J. Lao, and Donald R. Forsdyke1

Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

When transcription is to the right of the promoter, the "top," mRNA-synonymous strand of DNA tends to be purine-rich. When transcription is to the left of the promoter, the top, mRNA-template strand tends to be pyrimidine-rich. This transcription-direction rule suggests that there has been an evolutionary selection pressure for the purine-loading of RNAs. The politeness hypothesis states that purine-loading prevents distracting RNA-RNA interactions and excessive formation of double-stranded RNA, which might trigger various intracellular alarms. Because RNA-RNA interactions have a distinct entropy-driven component, the pressure for the evolution of purine-loading might be greater in organisms living at high temperatures. In support of this, we find that Chargaff differences (a measure of purine-loading) are greater in thermophiles than in nonthermophiles and extend to both purine bases. In thermophiles the pressure to purine-load affects codon choice, indicating that some features of their amino acid composition (e.g., high levels of glutamic acid) might reflect purine-loading pressure (i.e., constraints on mRNA) rather than direct constraints on protein structure and function.

1 Corresponding author.

10:228-236 ©2000 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press  ISSN 1088-9051/00 $5.00
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 RNAHome page
S. SMIT, M. YARUS, and R. KNIGHT
Natural selection is not required to explain universal compositional patterns in rRNA secondary structure categories
RNA, January 1, 2006; 12(1): 1 - 14.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
C. Nikolaou and Y. Almirantis
A study on the correlation of nucleotide skews and the positioning of the origin of replication: different modes of replication in bacterial species
Nucleic Acids Res., November 30, 2005; 33(21): 6816 - 6822.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 GeneticsHome page
R. Friedman, J. W. Drake, and A. L. Hughes
Genome-Wide Patterns of Nucleotide Substitution Reveal Stringent Functional Constraints on the Protein Sequences of Thermophiles
Genetics, July 1, 2004; 167(3): 1507 - 1512.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
S. L. Chen, W. Lee, A. K. Hottes, L. Shapiro, and H. H. McAdams
Codon usage between genomes is constrained by genome-wide mutational processes
PNAS, March 9, 2004; 101(10): 3480 - 3485.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
A. Paz, D. Mester, I. Baca, E. Nevo, and A. Korol
Adaptive role of increased frequency of polypurine tracts in mRNA sequences of thermophilic prokaryotes
PNAS, March 2, 2004; 101(9): 2951 - 2956.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
D. J. Lynn, G. A. C. Singer, and D. A. Hickey
Synonymous codon usage is subject to selection in thermophilic bacteria
Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2002; 30(19): 4272 - 4277.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
P. Schattner
Searching for RNA genes using base-composition statistics
Nucleic Acids Res., May 1, 2002; 30(9): 2076 - 2082.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Genes Dev. Learn. Mem.
Protein Science RNA Genome Res.