Title: Analysis of the codon usage pattern in 2019-nCoV

Authors: Satyabrata Sahoo

Addresses: Department of Physics, Dhruba Chand Halder College, Dakshin Barasat, South 24 Parganas, 743372, WB, India

Abstract: Upon a viral outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), it is very important to understand the molecular characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 genome to detect the causative agent of the deadly viral infection. In the present study, we comprehensively analysed the codon usage pattern of SARS-CoV-2 to gain an insight into the viral pathogenesis as well as the evolutionary process of the newly emerging coronavirus. The correspondence analysis (CA), the effective number of codons versus GC3(NC-plot), and the relationship between GC12 versus GC3 show that a low codon usage bias exists in SARS-CoV-2. Both mutation and natural selection pressure have contributed to this low codon usage bias, with the former being the main determining factor. Lastly, the relationship of codon usage index (CUI), codon adaptation index (CAI), and the gene expression profile of SARS-CoV-2 genes have been discussed in reference to codon bias score (CBS) for further study on the virus-host relationship and their evolutionary phenomenon.

Keywords: CAI; codon adaptation index; codon usage bias; GC content; gene expression; RSCU; relative synonymous codon usage; SARS-CoV-2.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCBDD.2021.118828

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design, 2021 Vol.14 No.4, pp.273 - 296

Received: 18 Jun 2020
Accepted: 24 Apr 2021
Published online: 08 Nov 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article