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Codon usage method

This gene finding method is based on Staden, R. and McLachlan, A.D. (1982) Codon preference and its use in identifying protein coding regions in long DNA sequences. Nucl. Acid Res. 10, 141-156.

The current method contains a number of improvements on the original one. We are trying to decide if each segment of the sequence is coding or non-coding. Each possibility is represented by a model consisting of a table of expected codon usage. The calculation finds the odds that each segment of the sequence fits either the coding or non-coding model, and the results are plotted as log odds.

The results for each reading frame are plotted in the graphics window with frame 1 in the top panel, frame 2 the middle and frame 3 in the bottom panel. Frame 1 is the frame of the first base in the active region. At each position along the sequence the program also plots a single dot for the reading frame with the highest score. These dots appear at the midpoints of the three panels and will form a continuous line if one reading frame is consistently the highest scoring.

The figure shown below shows a SPIN Sequence Plot containing the results of the codon usage method on a sequence from C. elegans. This sequence has strong codon usage bias and so produces clear results for the method. Here the results are for the standard codon usage employing only the codon usage table shown below and a window length of 67 codons (i.e. no table of codon usage for non-coding sequence was supplied, and no normalisation was performed on the coding table). Compare the results to the other screen dump shown later, which also uses a window of 67 codons.

Also visible in the figure are the cross hairs. Their x position is shown in sequence base numbers in the left hand box above the plot, and the y coordinate, expressed using the score values of the gene search, is shown in the right hand box. Each line in the window has its own colour and can be dragged and dropped to new locations to reorganise the plot. The cursor in the plot can be used to control the position of the cursor in the sequence display.

[picture]
(Click for full size image)

As can be seen in the dialogue below the user can define the size of the scan window in codons (note that the window length must be odd), the name of the file containing the codon usage table, and the region of the sequence to be analysed. The longer the window the smoother the plots but the more difficult it is to finds the ends of the coding segments. The stronger the codon preference in the codon table the higher the discrimination between coding and non-coding (assuming the sequence being analysed has the same preferences as those of the table). Note also that the amino acid composition represented in the table will also influence the results.

[picture]

The user should supply the name of a file containing two concatenated codon usage tables - the first being from coding sequence and the second from noncoding sequence. This double codon table can be calculated by spin using the Codon Usage function (see section Calculate codon usage).

If the user gives the name of a file that contains only a single codon table the algorithm will assume that it is from coding sequence, and will generate a noncoding table that consists of the frequencies that would be expected if the sequence being analysed was random but had the same base composition as the codon table.

If no table is specified the program will generate a codon usage table corresponding to an average amino acid composition, and then derive a non-coding table from its base composition. This is equivalent to the "positional base preferences" method, and hence replaces it. More information about this method is given further down ( see section Positional base preferences)

In addition the user can select to set the amino acid composition of the coding table to have an average amino acid composition, and/or to have no codon preference (i.e. for each amino acid the codon counts are equal, i.e. (TTT = TTC); (TTA = TTG = CTT = CTC = CTA = CTG); ...; (GGT = GGC = GGA = GGG)). In the latter case the search uses amino acid composition only.

The average amino composition used to normalise the values in the codon table is that described by McCaldon and Argos McCaldon and Argos (1988), Proteins 4, 99-122.

The dialogue also allows the user to control whether or not the positions of stop codons are included in the display.

Codon tables are scaled so that the sum of their values is 1000 and then any zero entries are set to 1/1000. Stop codons in the coding table are made to be neutral by setting them to the mean value for the table.

Example of the tables employed/calculated for an input coding table, no non-coding table, and normalise to average amino acid composition.


Table read in:

      ===============================================
      F ttt     3 S tct    29 Y tat     5 C tgt     9
      F ttc    35 S tcc    21 Y tac    15 C tgc     5
      L tta     2 S tca     6 * taa     0 * tga     0
      L ttg    23 S tcg     9 * tag     0 W tgg    15
      ===============================================
      L ctt    70 P cct     1 H cat    17 R cgt    37
      L ctc    39 P ccc     2 H cac    15 R cgc    18
      L cta     0 P cca    14 Q caa    87 R cga     1
      L ctg     4 P ccg     0 Q cag    17 R cgg     1
      ===============================================
      I att    32 T act    30 N aat    11 S agt     1
      I atc    53 T acc    20 N aac    56 S agc     5
      I ata     1 T aca     3 K aaa    21 R aga    36
      M atg    31 T acg     0 K aag   115 R agg     0
      ===============================================
      V gtt    28 A gct    69 D gat    57 G ggt     5
      V gtc    22 A gcc    52 D gac    32 G ggc     1
      V gta     7 A gca     6 E gaa    76 G gga    48
      V gtg     4 A gcg     0 E gag    99 G ggg     1
      ===============================================


Program generates non-coding table from the base 
composition of the coding table:

      ===============================================
      F ttt    13 S tct    13 Y tat    12 C tgt    18
      F ttc    13 S tcc    12 Y tac    12 C tgc    17
      L tta    12 S tca    12 * taa    11 * tga    16
      L ttg    18 S tcg    17 * tag    16 W tgg    24
      ===============================================
      L ctt    13 P cct    12 H cat    12 R cgt    17
      L ctc    12 P ccc    12 H cac    11 R cgc    17
      L cta    12 P cca    11 Q caa    11 R cga    16
      L ctg    17 P ccg    17 Q cag    16 R cgg    23
      ===============================================
      I att    12 T act    12 N aat    11 S agt    16
      I atc    12 T acc    11 N aac    11 S agc    16
      I ata    11 T aca    11 K aaa    11 R aga    15
      M atg    16 T acg    16 K aag    15 R agg    22
      ===============================================
      V gtt    18 A gct    17 D gat    16 G ggt    24
      V gtc    17 A gcc    17 D gac    16 G ggc    23
      V gta    16 A gca    16 E gaa    15 G gga    22
      V gtg    24 A gcg    23 E gag    22 G ggg    31
      ===============================================


Program generates coding table with average amino acid
composition and stops set to mean:

      ===============================================
      F ttt     3 S tct    28 Y tat     8 C tgt    11
      F ttc    36 S tcc    20 Y tac    24 C tgc     6
      L tta     1 S tca     6 * taa    16 * tga    16
      L ttg    15 S tcg     9 * tag    16 W tgg    13
      ===============================================
      L ctt    46 P cct     3 H cat    12 R cgt    23
      L ctc    25 P ccc     6 H cac    10 R cgc    11
      L cta     0 P cca    42 Q caa    33 R cga     1
      L ctg     3 P ccg     0 Q cag     7 R cgg     1
      ===============================================
      I att    19 T act    33 N aat     7 S agt     1
      I atc    32 T acc    22 N aac    37 S agc     5
      I ata     1 T aca     3 K aaa     9 R aga    22
      M atg    24 T acg     0 K aag    48 R agg     0
      ===============================================
      V gtt    30 A gct    45 D gat    34 G ggt     7
      V gtc    24 A gcc    34 D gac    19 G ggc     1
      V gta     8 A gca     4 E gaa    27 G gga    63
      V gtg     4 A gcg     0 E gag    35 G ggg     1
      ===============================================


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This page is maintained by staden-package. Last generated on 22 October 2002.
URL: http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/pubseq/manual/spin_unix_27.html