Evolutionary instability of CUG-Leu in the genetic code of budding yeasts

Nature Communications
Tadeusz KrassowskiKenneth H Wolfe

Abstract

The genetic code used in nuclear genes is almost universal, but here we report that it changed three times in parallel during the evolution of budding yeasts. All three changes were reassignments of the codon CUG, which is translated as serine (in 2 yeast clades), alanine (1 clade), or the 'universal' leucine (2 clades). The newly discovered Ser2 clade is in the final stages of a genetic code transition. Most species in this clade have genes for both a novel tRNASer(CAG) and an ancestral tRNALeu(CAG) to read CUG, but only tRNASer(CAG) is used in standard growth conditions. The coexistence of these alloacceptor tRNA genes indicates that the genetic code transition occurred via an ambiguous translation phase. We propose that the three parallel reassignments of CUG were not driven by natural selection in favor of their effects on the proteome, but by selection to eliminate the ancestral tRNALeu(CAG).

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Citations

Jan 31, 2019·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Emmanuel NoutahiBernd Franz Lang
May 10, 2019·PLoS Pathogens·Klara JunkerJürgen Wendland
Aug 1, 2019·PLoS Genetics·Abigail L LaBellaAntonis Rokas
Oct 17, 2019·Genome Biology and Evolution·David Žihala, Marek Eliáš
Mar 12, 2020·Journal of Molecular Evolution·Ľubomír Tomáška, Jozef Nosek
Sep 10, 2020·RNA Biology·Matthew D Berg, Christopher J Brandl
Dec 14, 2018·World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology·Tomas Linder
Apr 4, 2019·Frontiers in Microbiology·Eugenio ManceraRichard J Bennett
Nov 13, 2018·Cell·Xing-Xing ShenAntonis Rokas
Mar 30, 2021·Frontiers in Microbiology·Ana Rita GuimarãesManuel A S Santos
Apr 15, 2021·Antonie van Leeuwenhoek·Jonas Rönnander, Sandra Ann Ingela Wright
May 23, 2021·FEMS Yeast Research·Ana Rita BezerraManuel A S Santos
Oct 4, 2021·FEMS Yeast Research·Renato L BinatiGiovanna E Felis
Sep 8, 2021·MBio·Samuel Vega-EstévezAlessia Buscaino
Nov 10, 2021·ELife·Yekaterina Shulgina, Sean R Eddy

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
PXD008827

Software Mentioned

TREE
BLASTX
tRNAscan
MaxQuant
iWGS
TBLASTN
BLAST
MUSCLE
DISCOVAR
PhyloBayes

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