Ascidian mitochondrial code


The ascidian mitochondrial code is a genetic code found in the mitochondria of Ascidia.

Code

Bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine or uracil.
Amino acids: Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Aspartic acid, Cysteine, Glutamic acid, Glutamine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine, Valine

Differences from the standard code

DNA codonsRNA codonsThis code Standard code
AGAAGAGly Arg
AGGAGGGly Arg
ATAAUAMet Ile
TGAUGATrp STOP = Ter

Systematic range and comments

There is evidence from a phylogenetically diverse sample of tunicates that AGA and AGG code for glycine. In other organisms, AGA/AGG code for either arginine or serine and in vertebrate mitochondria they code a STOP. Evidence for glycine translation of AGA/AGG was first found in 1993 in Pyura stolonifera and Halocynthia roretzi. It was then confirmed by tRNA sequencing and sequencing whole mitochondrial genomes.

Alternative initiation codons