PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bhandari, Bikash K.
AU  - Lim, Chun Shen
AU  - Remus, Daniela M.
AU  - Chen, Augustine
AU  - van Dolleweerd, Craig
AU  - Gardner, Paul P.
TI  - Protein yield is tunable by synonymous codon changes of translation initiation sites
AID  - 10.1101/726752
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 726752
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/22/726752.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/22/726752.full
AB  - Recombinant protein production is a key process in generating proteins of interest in the pharmaceutical industry and biomedical research. However, about 50% of recombinant proteins fail to be expressed in a variety of host cells. To address this problem, we modified up to the first nine codons of messenger RNAs with synonymous substitutions and showed that protein levels can be tuned. These modifications alter the ‘accessibility’ of translation initiation sites. We also reveal the dynamics between accessibility, gene expression, and turnovers using a coarse-grained simulation.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.