2
$\begingroup$

According to Wikipedia, the median size of a protein-coding gene is 26,288 bp which makes it possible (from statistical considerations) that the nucleotides C, G, A, T appear in roughly equal amounts in one strand. But maybe this is wrong so I want to ask:

Are there and which specific protein-coding genes have a significant inbalance of amounts of C, G, A, T in one strand?

Related to this is the question if there are larger proteins (containing up to 27,000 amino acids as the titins do) with a significant inbalance of amounts of the 20 different amino acids?

Might it be the case that from an inbalance of the gene an inbalance of the protein may follow?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I don't know about the base usage/(im)balance, but using the transcriptome sequences, that would be relatively easy to check. For amino acid usage, I think there is a bias for evolutionary older proteins (especially mitochondrial ones related to bacteria) to not use certain amino acids as much (mostly the aromatic ones I think) $\endgroup$ – Nicolai Mar 6 '20 at 13:50
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Tangential to the topic of protein, but related to the "strandedness" mentioned in your question, is the phenomenon of GC skew (not to be confused with GC content). Differences in strand composition may be explained by asymmetric mutational pressures between the leading and lagging strands during transcription and replication. $\endgroup$ – acvill Mar 6 '20 at 16:51

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.