The expression of functional proteins in heterologous hosts is a cornerstone of modern
biotechnology. Unfortunately, proteins are often difficult to express outside their original …

The genetic code, which defines the amino acid sequence of a protein, also contains
information that influences the rate and efficiency of translation. Neither the mechanisms nor …

Synonymous mutations do not alter the encoded protein, but they can influence gene
expression. To investigate how, we engineered a synthetic library of 154 genes that varied …

Synonymous mutations do not alter the protein produced yet can have a significant effect on
protein levels. The mechanisms by which this effect is achieved are controversial; although …

Translation elongation efficiency is largely thought of as the sum of decoding efficiencies for
individual codons. Here, we find that adjacent codon pairs modulate translation efficiency …

Background Production of proteins as therapeutic agents, research reagents and molecular
tools frequently depends on expression in heterologous hosts. Synthetic genes are …

Protein homeostasis of bacterial cells is maintained by coordinated processes of protein
production, folding, and degradation. Translational efficiency of a given mRNA depends on …

Genetic code redundancy allows most amino acids to be encoded by multiple codons that
are non-randomly distributed along coding sequences. An accepted theory explaining the …

Mutating RNA virus genomes to alter codon pair (CP) frequencies and reduce translation
efficiency has been advocated as a method to generate safe, attenuated virus vaccines …

The DNA sequence used to encode a polypeptide can have dramatic effects on its
expression. Lack of readily available tools has until recently inhibited meaningful …