Evidence of rare codon clusters within Escherichia coli coding regions

Abstract

It is known that there is a high occurrence of rare codons at the start of coding region. Here it is shown that although the remainder of the gene is likely to contain a relatively low number of rare codons, rare and non-rare codons do not form a random sequence. It is apparent that throughout the coding region there is a higher than expected number of rare codon clusters. For example once a rare codon has occurred there is a greater chance than expected of the next six codons containing another rare codon. This non-random distribution implies that rare codons may have an as yet unidentified biological role.