A genetic code alteration generates a proteome of high diversity in the human pathogen Candida albicans

Ana C. Gomes; Isabel Miranda; Raquel M. Silva; Gabriela R. Moura; Benjamin Thomas; Alexandre Akoulitchev; Manuel A. S. Santos

doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-10-r206

A genetic code alteration generates a proteome of high diversity in the human pathogen Candida albicans

Ana C. Gomes, Isabel Miranda, Raquel M. Silva, Gabriela R. Moura, Benjamin Thomas, Alexandre Akoulitchev, Manuel A. S. Santos^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

96 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Genetic code alterations have been reported in mitochondrial, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic cytoplasmic translation systems, but their evolution and how organisms cope and survive such dramatic genetic events are not understood. Results: Here we used an unusual decoding of leucine CUG codons as serine in the main human fungal pathogen Candida albicans to elucidate the global impact of genetic code alterations on the proteome. We show that C. albicans decodes CUG codons ambiguously and tolerates partial reversion of their identity from serine back to leucine on a genome-wide scale. Conclusion: Such codon ambiguity expands the proteome of this human pathogen exponentially and is used to generate important phenotypic diversity. This study highlights novel features of C. albicans biology and unanticipated roles for codon ambiguity in the evolution of the genetic code.

Original language	English
Article number	R206
Journal	Genome Biology
Volume	8
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2007-8-10-r206
Publication status	Published - 4 Oct 2007
Externally published	Yes

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title = "A genetic code alteration generates a proteome of high diversity in the human pathogen Candida albicans",

abstract = "Background: Genetic code alterations have been reported in mitochondrial, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic cytoplasmic translation systems, but their evolution and how organisms cope and survive such dramatic genetic events are not understood. Results: Here we used an unusual decoding of leucine CUG codons as serine in the main human fungal pathogen Candida albicans to elucidate the global impact of genetic code alterations on the proteome. We show that C. albicans decodes CUG codons ambiguously and tolerates partial reversion of their identity from serine back to leucine on a genome-wide scale. Conclusion: Such codon ambiguity expands the proteome of this human pathogen exponentially and is used to generate important phenotypic diversity. This study highlights novel features of C. albicans biology and unanticipated roles for codon ambiguity in the evolution of the genetic code.",

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AU - Gomes, Ana C.

AU - Miranda, Isabel

AU - Silva, Raquel M.

AU - Moura, Gabriela R.

AU - Thomas, Benjamin

AU - Akoulitchev, Alexandre

AU - Santos, Manuel A. S.

PY - 2007/10/4

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N2 - Background: Genetic code alterations have been reported in mitochondrial, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic cytoplasmic translation systems, but their evolution and how organisms cope and survive such dramatic genetic events are not understood. Results: Here we used an unusual decoding of leucine CUG codons as serine in the main human fungal pathogen Candida albicans to elucidate the global impact of genetic code alterations on the proteome. We show that C. albicans decodes CUG codons ambiguously and tolerates partial reversion of their identity from serine back to leucine on a genome-wide scale. Conclusion: Such codon ambiguity expands the proteome of this human pathogen exponentially and is used to generate important phenotypic diversity. This study highlights novel features of C. albicans biology and unanticipated roles for codon ambiguity in the evolution of the genetic code.

AB - Background: Genetic code alterations have been reported in mitochondrial, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic cytoplasmic translation systems, but their evolution and how organisms cope and survive such dramatic genetic events are not understood. Results: Here we used an unusual decoding of leucine CUG codons as serine in the main human fungal pathogen Candida albicans to elucidate the global impact of genetic code alterations on the proteome. We show that C. albicans decodes CUG codons ambiguously and tolerates partial reversion of their identity from serine back to leucine on a genome-wide scale. Conclusion: Such codon ambiguity expands the proteome of this human pathogen exponentially and is used to generate important phenotypic diversity. This study highlights novel features of C. albicans biology and unanticipated roles for codon ambiguity in the evolution of the genetic code.

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A genetic code alteration generates a proteome of high diversity in the human pathogen Candida albicans

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