ArticlePloS one2013
Fitness costs of synonymous mutations in the rpsT gene can be compensated by restoring mRNA base pairing.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Codon Usage Bias: A Potential Factor Affecting VGLUT Developmental Expression and Protein Evolution.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- CRISPR-Cas9-assisted genome editing inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Fitness benefits of a synonymous substitution in an ancient EF-Tu gene depend on the genetic background.Journal of bacteriology · 2024Article
- Molecular bases for strong phenotypic effects of single synonymous codon substitutions in the E. coli ccdB toxin gene.BMC genomics · 2023Article
- Evolution of new enzymes by gene duplication and divergence.The FEBS journal · 2020Review
- Experimental Determination and Prediction of the Fitness Effects of Random Point Mutations in the Biosynthetic Enzyme HisA.Molecular biology and evolution · 2018Article
- Functional Constraints on Replacing an Essential Gene with Its Ancient and Modern Homologs.mBio · 2017Article
- Experimental Evolution of Escherichia coli Harboring an Ancient Translation Protein.Journal of molecular evolution · 2017Article
- Large-Effect Beneficial Synonymous Mutations Mediate Rapid and Parallel Adaptation in a Bacterium.Molecular biology and evolution · 2016Article
- Compensating the Fitness Costs of Synonymous Mutations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2016Article
- The Selective Advantage of Synonymous Codon Usage Bias in Salmonella.PLoS genetics · 2016Article
- Mutations to Less-Preferred Synonymous Codons in a Highly Expressed Gene of Escherichia coli: Fitness and Epistatic Interactions.PloS one · 2016Article
- Selection on codon bias in yeast: a transcriptional hypothesis.Nucleic acids research · 2013Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We previously reported that the distribution of fitness effects for non-synonymous and synonymous mutations in Salmonella typhimurium ribosomal proteins S20 and L1 are similar, suggesting that fitness constraints are present at the level of mRNA. Here we explore the hypothesis that synonymous mutations confer their fitness-reducing effect by alterating the secondary structure of the mRNA. To this end, we constructed a set of synonymous substitutions in the rpsT gene, encoding ribosomal protein S20, that are located in predicted paired regions in the mRNA and measured their effect on bacterial fitness. Our results show that for 3/9 cases tested, the reduced fitness conferred by a synonymous mutation could be fully or partly restored by introducing a second synonymous substitution that restore base pairing in a mRNA stem. In addition, random mutations in predicted paired regions had larger fitness effects than those in unpaired regions. Finally, we did not observe any correlation between fitness effects of the synonymous mutations and their rarity. These results suggest that for ribosomal protein S20, the deleterious effects of synonymous mutations are not generally due to codon usage effects, but that mRNA secondary structure is a major fitness constraint.
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