Co-adaption of tRNA gene copy number and amino acid usage influences translation rates in three life domains.
Although more and more entangled participants of translation process were realized, how they cooperate and co-determine the final translation efficiency still lacks details. Here, we reasoned that the basic translation components, tRNAs and amino acids should be consistent to maximize the efficiency and minimize the cost. We firstly revealed that 310 out of 410 investigated genomes of three domains had significant co-adaptions between the tRNA gene copy numbers and amino acid compositions, indicating that maximum efficiency constitutes ubiquitous selection pressure on protein translation. Furthermore, fast-growing and larger bacteria are found to have significantly better co-adaption and confirmed the effect of this pressure. Within organism, highly expressed proteins and those connected to acute responses have higher co-adaption intensity. Thus, the better co-adaption probably speeds up the growing of cells through accelerating the translation of special proteins. Experimentally, manipulating the tRNA gene copy number to optimize co-adaption between enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and tRNA gene set of Escherichia coli indeed lifted the translation rate (speed). Finally, as a newly confirmed translation rate regulating mechanism, the co-adaption reflecting translation rate not only deepens our understanding on translation process but also provides an easy and practicable method to improve protein translation rates and productivity.
['Du|Meng-Ze|MZ|', 'Wei|Wen|W|', 'Qin|Lei|L|', 'Liu|Shuo|S|', 'Zhang|An-Ying|AY|', 'Zhang|Yong|Y|', 'Zhou|Hong|H|', 'Guo|Feng-Biao|FB|']
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological D000596:Amino Acids D004926:Escherichia coli D018628:Gene Dosage D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins D006801:Humans D014176:Protein Biosynthesis D012343:RNA, Transfer D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae D012641:Selection, Genetic
co-adaption tRNA gene copy number amino acid usage translation rate minimum cost