2007/02/09 by Shalev Itzkovitz, Uri Alon · 4 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms #CRISPR and Genetic Engineering #Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1101/gr.5987307
openalex publication_date 2007/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
DNA sequences that code for proteins need to convey, in addition to the protein-coding information, several different signals at the same time. These "parallel codes" include binding sequences for regulatory and structural proteins, signals for splicing, and RNA secondary structure. Here, we show that the universal genetic code can efficiently carry arbitrary parallel codes much better than the vast majority of other possible genetic codes. This property is related to the identity of the stop codons. We find that the ability to support parallel codes is strongly tied to another useful property of the genetic code--minimization of the effects of frame-shift translation errors. Whereas many of the known regulatory codes reside in nontranslated regions of the genome, the present findings suggest that protein-coding regions can readily carry abundant additional information.