ArticlePLoS genetics2009
Origin of an alternative genetic code in the extremely small and GC-rich genome of a bacterial symbiont.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 132 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
132 citing papers in PubMed, 279 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stop codon reassignment to tryptophan in members of the bacterial phylumMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Phylogenetically diverse MucoralesMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Genome degradation results in nested symbiosis and endosymbiont replacement in cicadas.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Microbiomes of 2024's Periodical Cicada Brood XIII Vary By Species and Location.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Enigmatic tubular ultrastructure in the bacterial defensive symbiont of the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri.Npj imaging · 2025Article
- The Nitroplast and Its Relatives Support a Universal Model of Features Predicting Gene Retention in Endosymbiont and Organelle Genomes.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Genome engineering on size reduction and complexity simplification: A review.Journal of advanced research · 2024Review
- How do bacterial endosymbionts work with so few genes?PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Impact of the chemical modification of tRNAs anticodon loop on the variability and evolution of codon usage in proteobacteria.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Symbionts inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Evolution of an Alternative Genetic Code in the Providencia Symbiont of the Hematophagous Leech Haementeria acuecueyetzin.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Genome Comparison Reveals Inversions and Alternative Evolutionary History of Nutritional Endosymbionts in Planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha).Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Symbioses shape feeding niches and diversification across insects.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- 300 Million years of coral treaders (Insecta: Heteroptera: Hermatobatidae) back to the ocean in the phylogenetic context of Arthropoda.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- No Transcriptional Compensation for Extreme Gene Dosage Imbalance in Fragmented Bacterial Endosymbionts of Cicadas.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Diversity of the Bacterial Community Associated with Hindgut, Malpighian Tubules, and Foam of Nymphs of Two Spittlebug Species (Hemiptera: Aphrophoridae).Microorganisms · 2023Article
- The Influence of the Selection at the Amino Acid Level on Synonymous Codon Usage from the Viewpoint of Alternative Genetic Codes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The effect of the genomic GC content bias of prokaryotic organisms on the secondary structures of their proteins.PloS one · 2023Article
- Lack of host phylogenetic structure in the gut bacterial communities of New Zealand cicadas and their interspecific hybrids.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Experimental validation that human microbiome phages use alternative genetic coding.Nature communications · 2022Article
72 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The genetic code relates nucleotide sequence to amino acid sequence and is shared across all organisms, with the rare exceptions of lineages in which one or a few codons have acquired novel assignments. Recoding of UGA from stop to tryptophan has evolved independently in certain reduced bacterial genomes, including those of the mycoplasmas and some mitochondria. Small genomes typically exhibit low guanine plus cytosine (GC) content, and this bias in base composition has been proposed to drive UGA Stop to Tryptophan (Stop-->Trp) recoding. Using a combination of genome sequencing and high-throughput proteomics, we show that an alpha-Proteobacterial symbiont of cicadas has the unprecedented combination of an extremely small genome (144 kb), a GC-biased base composition (58.4%), and a coding reassignment of UGA Stop-->Trp. Although it is not clear why this tiny genome lacks the low GC content typical of other small bacterial genomes, these observations support a role of genome reduction rather than base composition as a driver of codon reassignment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.