Genome-wide role of codon usage on transcription and identification of potential regulators
Fangzhou Zhao, Zhipeng Zhou, Yunkun Dang, Hyunsoo Na, Catherine Adam, Anna Lipzen, Vivian Ng, Igor V. Grigoriev, Yi Liu
Abstract
Significance Codon usage bias, the preference for certain synonymous codons, is a feature of all genomes and plays an important role in determining gene expression levels. Surprisingly, in addition to its role in mRNA translation, codon usage was recently shown to regulate gene expression at the transcriptional level. In this study, our results suggest that codon usage influences transcription genome-wide independently of its effect on translation. By carrying out a large-scale genetic screen, we identified 18 factors participating in multiple transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved in the codon usage-mediated transcriptional effects. Together, our study establishes a foundation for future mechanistic understanding of this gene regulatory phenomenon.