Codon usage bias of Catharanthus roseus

This study aimed to provide guidance for the heterogenous gene expression, gene prediction and species evolution by analyzing codon usage bias of Catharanthus roseus. The codon composition and usage bias of 30 437 high-confidence coding sequences from C. roseus were analyzed and the proportion of rare codons of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in 25 genes involved in the biosynthesis of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) in C. roseus were calculated. The results showed that the average GC content of the genes was 42. 47%; the average GC content of the third bases in codon was 35. 89%. The relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) of 28 codons were greater than 1 and 26 of them ended with A or T. The above 25 genes involved in TIA biosynthesis contained much more rare condons of E. coli than that of S. cerevisiae. It was concluded that C. roseus mainly prefered the codons ending with A or T and the rule of codon usage was more different to E. coli than S. cerevisiae. Thus, S. cerevisiae may be more suitable host for heterologous expression of these genes.