Rapid biosynthesis is key to the success of bacteria and viruses. Highly expressed genes in bacteria exhibit a strong codon bias corresponding to the differential availability of tRNAs. However, a large clade of lambdoid coliphages exhibits relatively poor codon adaptation to the host translation machinery, in contrast to other coliphages that exhibit strong codon adaptation to the host. Three possible explanations were previously proposed but dismissed: (1) the phage-borne tRNA genes that reduce the dependence of phage translation on host tRNAs, (2) lack of time needed for evolving codon adaptation due to recent host switching, and (3) strong strand asymmetry with biased mutation disrupting codon adaptation. Here, we examined the possibility that phages with relatively poor codon adaptation have poor translation initiation which would weaken the selection on codon adaptation. We measured translation initiation by: (1) the strength and position of the Shine–Dalgarno (SD) sequence, and (2) the stability of the secondary structure of sequences flanking the SD and start codon known to affect accessibility of the SD sequence and start codon. Phage genes with strong codon adaptation had significantly stronger SD sequences than those with poor codon adaptation. The former also had significantly weaker secondary structure in sequences flanking the SD sequence and start codon than the latter. Thus, lambdoid phages do not exhibit strong codon adaptation because they have relatively inefficient translation initiation and would benefit little from increased elongation efficiency. We also provided evidence suggesting that phage lifestyle (virulent versus temperate) affected selection intensity on the efficiency of translation initiation and elongation.

Because phages use their host translation machinery, their codon usage should evolve toward that of highly expressed host genes. We used two indices to measure codon adaptation of phages to their host, rRSCU (the correlation in relative synonymous codon usage [RSCU] between phages and their host) and Codon Adaptation Index (CAI) computed with highly expressed host genes as the reference set (because phage translation depends on host translation machinery). These indices used for this purpose are appropriate only when hosts exhibit little mutation bias, so only phages parasitizing Escherichia coli were included in the analysis. For double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) phages, both rRSCU and CAI decrease with increasing number of transfer RNA genes encoded by the phage genome. rRSCU is greater for dsDNA phages than for single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) phages, and the low rRSCU values are mainly due to poor concordance in RSCU values for Y-ending codons between ssDNA phages and the E. coli host, consistent with the predicted effect of C→T mutation bias in the ssDNA phages. Strong C→T mutation bias would improve codon adaptation in codon families (e.g., Gly) where U-ending codons are favored over C-ending codons (“U-friendly” codon families) by highly expressed host genes but decrease codon adaptation in other codon families where highly expressed host genes favor C-ending codons against U-ending codons (“U-hostile” codon families). It is remarkable that ssDNA phages with increasing C→T mutation bias also increased the usage of codons in the “U-friendly” codon families, thereby achieving CAI values almost as large as those of dsDNA phages. This represents a new type of codon adaptation.

Studying phage codon adaptation is important not only for understanding the process of translation elongation, but also for reengineering phages for medical and industrial purposes. To evaluate the effect of mutation and selection on phage codon usage, we developed an index to measure selection imposed by host translation machinery, based on the difference in codon usage between all host genes and highly expressed host genes. We developed linear and nonlinear models to estimate the C→T mutation bias in different phage lineages and to evaluate the relative effect of mutation and host selection on phage codon usage. C→T-biased mutations occur more frequently in single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) phages than in double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) phages and affect not only synonymous codon usage, but also nonsynonymous substitutions at second codon positions, especially in ssDNA phages. The host translation machinery affects codon adaptation in both dsDNA and ssDNA phages, with a stronger effect on dsDNA phages than on ssDNA phages. Strand asymmetry with the associated local variation in mutation bias can significantly interfere with codon adaptation in both dsDNA and ssDNA phages.

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