Title

An Analysis of Single Nucleotide Substitution in Genetic Codons - Probabilities and Outcomes

Authors

Tariq Abdullah1*, Muniba Faiza1, Prashant Pant2, Mohd Rayyan Akhtar3, Pratibha Pant4

Affiliation

1Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi , India; 2Department of Botany, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi, New Delhi – 110003, India; 3R & D Division, UTL Inverters Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, - 110025, India; 4Department of Botany, Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

Email

Tariq Abdullah – Email: tariq141760@st.jmi.ac.in; Phone: +91 8527572667; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received March 24, 2016; Revised April 12; Accepted April 14, 2016; Published June 15, 2016

Background: Single nucleotide substitutions (SNS) in genetic codon are of prime importance due to their ability to alter an amino acid sequence as a result. Given the nature of genetic code, any SNS is expected to change the protein sequence randomly into any of the 64 possible codons. In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis of how single nucleotide substitutions in genetic codon may affect resulting amino acid residue and what is the most likely amino acid that will get selected as a result. Methods: A probability matrix was developed showing possible changes and routes likely being followed as a result of base substitution mutation causing changes at the translational level for the amino acid being encoded. Results: We observe that in event of single base pair substitution in a given amino acid; a chosen set of amino acids is theoretically more probable to be resulted suggesting a directional rather than a random change. This study also indicates that for a given amino acid coded by a number of synonymous codons, all synonymous codons will result into same list of amino acids in case of all possible SNS at three positions. Conclusion: The present work has resulted into development of a theoretical probability matrix which can be used to predict changes in amino acid residues in a protein sequence caused by single base substitutions.

Keywords

Mutation, point mutation, codon, genetic code, single base substitutions or single nucleotide substitutions

Citation

Abdullah et al. Bioinformation 12(3): 98-104 (2016)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.