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Codon specificity of starvation induced misreading

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Summary

Mistranslated derivatives of the coat protein of the bacteriophage MS2 were isolated from infected cells starved for asparagine. This protein contains a high level of lysine for asparagine substitutions. By peptide analysis and amino acid sequencing we show that there is a six-fold greater frequency of errors at AAU codons than at AAC codons. This ratio is the same as that found in unstarved cells where the overall error frequency is 100-fold less. We also demonstrate that, at least for AAC codons, context affects error frequency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Southern Illinois University, 62901, Carbondale, Illinois, USA

    Timothy C. Johnston & Jack Parker

  2. Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, 62708, Springfield, Illinois, USA

    Peter T. Borgia

Authors
  1. Timothy C. Johnston
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  2. Peter T. Borgia
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  3. Jack Parker
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Communicated by A. Böck

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Johnston, T.C., Borgia, P.T. & Parker, J. Codon specificity of starvation induced misreading. Mol Gen Genet 195, 459–465 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00341447

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00341447

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