G·A·B·B·A

Several Candida species translate the standard leucine CUG codon as serine. This genetic code alteration is mediated by a novel tRNA (ser-tRNACAG), which can be charged both with serine (97 %) and leucine (3%) in vivo. Therefore, the CUG codon is ambiguous, since it can be decoded either as serine or leucine. To elucidate the impact of genetic code ambiguity on gene expression and cell physiology, the C. albicans ser-tRNACAG was expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This induces ambiguous decoding of the CUG codon, due to competition between the endogenous tRNA that decodes the CUG codon as leucine and the C. albicans ser-tRNACAG, which decodes it mainly as serine.

Transcriptome and proteome characterization of the engineered S. cerevisiae cell lines show that genetic code ambiguity induces global gene and protein expression changes, with alterations in the stress response, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, cell wall structure and function, protein synthesis and protein degradation. Additionally, the results indicate that CUG mistranslation regulates gene expression at the translational level. CUG ambiguity generates proteome and genome instability, however, these cells do not lose viability. Instead, the data suggests that the stress response triggered by CUG ambiguity increases adaptation potential, as shown by the tolerance of ambiguous cells to several stress conditions.

Therefore, the reconstruction of the CUG reassignment pathway provided important insight on the impact that genetic code alterations have on cell adaptation and evolution. This study also sheds new light on the mechanisms that allow eukaryotic cells to tolerate high levels of mRNA mistranslation.