CODON USAGE AND GENE-FUNCTION ARE RELATED IN SEQUENCES OF ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA (REPRINTED FROM GENE COMBIS, VOL 209, PG GC1-GC38, 1998)

In this paper, the relationship between codon usage and the physiologi cal pattern of expression of a gene is investigated while considering a dataset of 815 nuclear genes of Arabidopsis thaliana. Factorial Corr espondence Analysis, a commonly used multivariate statistical approach in codon usage analysis, was used in order to analyse codon usage bia s gene by gene. The analysis reveals a single major trend in codon usa ge among genes in Arabidopsis. At one end of the trend lie genes with a highly G/C biased codon usage. This group contains mainly photosynth etic and housekeeping genes which are known to encode the most abundan t proteins of the vegetal cell. At the other extreme lie genes with a weaker A/T-biased codon usage. This group contain genes with various f unctions which exhibits most of the time a strong tissue-specific patt ern of expression in relation, for example, to stress conditions. Thes e observations were confirmed by the detailed analysis of codon usage in the multigene family of tubulins and appear to be general in plant species, even as distant from Arabidopsis thaliana as a monocotyledono us plant such as maize. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.