Avian coronavirus Spike Glycoprotein Ectodomain Shows a Low Codon Adaptation to Gallus gallus with Virus-Exclusive Codons in Strategic Amino Acids Positions

作者：Brandao Paulo E^*

来源：Journal of Molecular Evolution, 2012, 75(1-2): 19-24.

DOI：10.1007/s00239-012-9515-2

• Codon usage bias
• Avian coronavirus
• Gallus gallus
• Co-evolution

This is a study on the Avian coronavirus IBV and chicken host-relationship from the codon usage point of view based on fifty-nine non-redundant IBV S1 sequences (nt 1-507) from strains detected worldwide and chicken tissue-specific protein genes sequences from IBV-replicating sites. The effective number of codons (ENC) values ranged from 36 to 47.8, indicating a high-to-moderate codon usage bias. The highest IBV codon adaptation index (CAI) value was 0.7, indicating a distant virus versus host synonymous codons usage. The ENC x GC3 % curve indicates that both mutational pressure and natural selection are the driving forces on codon usage pattern in S1. The low CAI values agree with a low S protein expression and considering that S protein is a determinant for attachment and neutralization, this could be a further mechanism besides mRNA transcription attenuation for a low expression of this protein leading to an immune camouflage.

• 出版日期2012-8