Analysis of Codon Usage and Nucleotide Compositional Traits of Morbilliviruses

Abstract

In this study, the Relative Synonymous Codon Usage (RSCU) values, Effective Number of Codon (ENC) values, nucleotide contents and dinucleotide were used to consider codon usage pattern of each structure protein gene and genome among the members of Morbillivirus genus. The results showed that the overall extent of codon usage bias in Morbilliviruses is low (mean ENC = 54.84>35). The good correlation between the C+G) 12% and (G+C) 3% suggested that the mutational pressure rather than natural selection is the main factor that determines the codon usage bias and base component in Morbilliviruses. It is observed that synonymous codon usage pattern in Morbilliviruses can be divided into two groups. Under-represented CpG is a characteristic of all the members in Morbilliviruses. It may be a strategy to adapt to the host These analyses not only provided an insight into the variation of codon usage pattern among the genomes of Morbilliviruses but also were helpful in understanding the processes of the evolution of Morbilliviruses.