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Codon usage and G+C content in Bradyrhizobium japonicum genes are not uniform

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Abstract

To date, the sequences of 45 Bradyrhizobium japonicum genes are known. This provides sufficient information to determine their codon usage and G+C content. Surprisingly, B. japonicum nodulation and NifA-regulated genes were found to have a less biased codon usage and a lower G+C content than genes not belonging to these two groups. Thus, the coding regions of nodulation genes and NifA-regulated genes could hardly be identified in codon preference plots whereas this was not difficult with other genes. The codon frequency table of the highly biased genes was used in a codon preference plot to analyze the RSRjα9 sequence which is an insertion sequence (IS)-like element. The plot helped identify a new open reading frame (ORF355) that escaped previous detection because of two sequencing errors. These were now corrected. The deduced gene product of ORF355 in RSRjα9 showed extensive similarity to a putative protein encoded by an ORF in the T-DNA of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. The DNA sequences bordering both ORFs showed inverted repeats and potential target site duplications which supported the assumption that they were IS-like elements.

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  1. Mikrobiologisches Institut, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETH-Zentrum, Schmelzbergstrasse 7, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Tom M. Ramseier & Michael Göttfert

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  1. Tom M. Ramseier
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  2. Michael Göttfert
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Ramseier, T.M., Göttfert, M. Codon usage and G+C content in Bradyrhizobium japonicum genes are not uniform. Arch. Microbiol. 156, 270–276 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00262997

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00262997

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