PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ariel Hecht
AU  - Jeff Glasgow
AU  - Paul R. Jaschke
AU  - Lukmaan Bawazer
AU  - Matthew S. Munson
AU  - Jennifer Cochran
AU  - Drew Endy
AU  - Marc Salit
TI  - Measurements of translation initiation from all 64 codons in <em>E. coli</em>
AID  - 10.1101/063800
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 063800
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/14/063800.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/14/063800.full
AB  - Our understanding of translation is one cornerstone of molecular biology that underpins our capacity to engineer living matter. The canonical start codon (AUG) and a few near-cognates (GUG, UUG) are typically considered as the “start codons” for translation initiation in Escherichia coli (E. coli). Translation is typically not thought to initiate from the 61 remaining codons. Here, we systematically quantified translation initiation in E. coli from all 64 triplet codons. We detected protein synthesis above background initiating from at least 46 codons. Translation initiated from these non-canonical start codons at levels ranging from 0.01% to 2% relative to AUG. Translation initiation from non-canonical start codons may contribute to the synthesis of peptides in both natural and synthetic biological systems