Abstract

In mammals, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) play essential roles in the regulation of cellular differentiation, development, and metabolism (carbohydrate, lipid, protein), and tumorigenesis of higher organisms. In this paper, the relative synonymous codon use frequency of 32 PPAR family genes from seven mammal species (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, Bos taurus, Macaca mulatta,Oryctolagus cuniculus, Sus scrofa) were analyzed by correspondence analysis and hierarchical cluster method. The results indicated that the gene function is the dominant factor that determines codon usage bias in PPAR family genes, while species is a minor factor that determines further difference in codon usage bias for genes with similar functions.

Key words: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, synonymous codon use, correspondence analysis, codon usage bias.