Maximizing elements for your genome The accumulation of mutations is typically limited by selective parameters. One such parameter is the elements needed to build proteins and molecules to maintain cells. Examining the underlying carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen content for different amino acids, Shenhav et al. examined the selective pressure resulting from nutrient limitation (see the Perspective by Polz and Cordero). The authors identified “resource-driven” selection as a purifying selective force associated with environmental nutrient availability, particularly nitrogen, and determined the impact of mutations on the organismal nutritional budget. From this constraint, the authors have proposed that the structure of the genetic code across organisms reflects the mutational impact on elemental resources. Science, this issue p. 683; see also p. 655 In marine microbe genomes, functional mutations are constrained by the nutritional availability of nitrogen in the ocean. Nutrient limitation drives competition for resources across organisms. However, much is unknown about how selective pressures resulting from nutrient limitation shape microbial coding sequences. Here, we study this “resource-driven selection” by using metagenomic and single-cell data of marine microbes, alongside environmental measurements. We show that a significant portion of the selection exerted on microbes is explained by the environment and is associated with nitrogen availability. Notably, this resource conservation optimization is encoded in the structure of the standard genetic code, providing robustness against mutations that increase carbon and nitrogen incorporation into protein sequences. This robustness generalizes to codon choices from multiple taxa across all domains of life, including the human genome.

中文翻译：

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资源节约体现在遗传密码上

最大化基因组元素 突变的积累通常受到选择性参数的限制。其中一个参数是构建蛋白质和分子以维持细胞所需的元素。Shenhav 等人检查了不同氨基酸的潜在碳、氧和氮含量。检查了营养限制导致的选择压力（参见 Polz 和 Cordero 的观点）。作者将“资源驱动”选择确定为与环境养分可用性（尤其是氮）相关的净化选择力，并确定了突变对生物体营养预算的影响。基于这一限制，作者提出跨生物体的遗传密码结构反映了对元素资源的突变影响。科学，这个问题 p。683; 另见第 655 在海洋微生物基因组中，功能性突变受到海洋中氮的营养可用性的限制。营养限制推动了生物之间对资源的竞争。然而，关于营养限制导致的选择压力如何塑造微生物编码序列，尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过使用海洋微生物的宏基因组和单细胞数据以及环境测量来研究这种“资源驱动的选择”。我们表明，对微生物施加的很大一部分选择是由环境解释的，并且与氮的可用性有关。值得注意的是，这种资源保护优化被编码在标准遗传密码的结构中，提供了对增加碳和氮掺入蛋白质序列的突变的鲁棒性。