3 ms·
There are actually differences between using different codons for the same amino acid. Not all tRNA is present in the same amounts in the cell, using a rare cod
by fabian2k 7y ago
There are actually differences between using different codons for the same amino acid. Not all tRNA is present in the same amounts in the cell, using a rare codon will slow down translation because the tRNA for it is present in lower concentrations than the one for the more often used codon. So it will affect translation rates if you change the codons.
There are also cases where using a "slower" codon help the protein fold well by giving it a bit of time before continuing translation. Changing the kinetics of translation can affect the outcome.
- el_cujo 7y agoThe article did mention the cells grow more slowly, maybe this explains why. They framed the impetus for this experiment as being "why do we have so many redundancies in codons", maybe the answer is that evolution favored generating new tRNAs for the more used amino acids, speeding up translation? This kind of thing could also be accomplished by changing the rate of generating tRNAs, and for all I know that plays a role too. I'd never really put much thought into why the code was set up that way, its interesting to think about.
- phkahler 7y agoThanks for providing this insight. I was wondering why the resulting organisms were different. Your comment offers some solid suggestions as to why.