L M FitzGerald | PubMed Health

PubMed1996

Complete genome sequence of the methanogenic archaeon, Methanococcus jannaschii.

The complete 1.66-megabase pair genome sequence of an autotrophic archaeon, Methanococcus jannaschii, and its 58- and 16-kilobase pair extrachromosomal elements have been determined by whole-genome random sequencing. A total of 1738 predicted protein-coding genes were identified; however, only a minority of these (38 percent) could be assigned a putative cellular role with high confidence. Although the majority of genes related to energy production, cell division, and metabolism in M. jannaschii are most similar to those found in Bacteria, most of the genes involved in transcription, translation, and replication in M. jannaschii are more similar to those found in Eukaryotes.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

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Codon usage in bony fishes.

Bony fishes are excellent experimental models that have been used extensively in biochemical and molecular genetic studies. As proteins are isolated and characterized from these organisms, information on codon usage by bony fishes can be used for subsequent recombinant DNA studies. Codon usage and nucleotide bias within codons from three species of bony fishes and two composites of 14 and 15 bony-fish species were analyzed. Although differences in codon usage increased from seven amino acids between fish species to eight amino acids between fish genera, the small number of differences (3 amino acids) between a single species and a fish composite minus that species suggests that codon usage tables constructed from large numbers of fish species are representative of bony fish in general. Furthermore, we found few differences in codon usage between two vertebrate phyla (fish and rat). Codons in fish DNA sequences end predominantly in G or C, even though the coding sequences are not enriched in these nucleotides. This positional base bias can be used to locate putative protein coding regions in fish DNA sequences.

Amino Acids↗