密码子偏性是指生物体中编码同一种氨基酸的同义密码子的非均衡使用现象,由于这一现象与遗传信息的载体分子DNA和生物功能分子蛋白质相关联,所以具有重要的生物学意义;文章概述了密码子偏性研究方面的基本理论和常用分析方法,归纳了密码子使用分析的常用软件和提供在线分析网站,介绍了与密码子偏性相关的生物学领域及最新的研究进展,并对深入研究进行展望。
Codon bias refers to the nonrandom usage of synonymous codons for encoding amino acids in organisms. As it is related to the carrier molecular of genetic information (DNA) and functional molecular (protein) of life, this phenomenon implicates important biological sense. In this review, we summarize the basic theories and analysis methods about codon bias; and present the softwares and websites which are usually used for codon usage analysis. The related fields about codon bias and the research progress are also introduced.