Characterization of codon usage bias in the US10 gene of duck enteritis virus

In order to have some bioinformatics information about synonymous codon usage pattern of the duck enteritis virus (DEV) US10 gene (GenBank accession number: EU195084), we analyzed the DEV US10 gene and 19 other reference herpesviruses by using bioinformatics softwares, such as CAI, CHIPS and CUSP program of EMBOSS. The results revealed that codon usage bias in the US10 gene was mainly influenced by nucleotide composition, specifically manifested in adenine (A) and thymine (T) at the third codon position. The phylogenetic analysis suggested that DEV had a closer evolutionary relationship with the Mardivirus, which was clustered into Alphaherpesvirinae. There were 32 codons showing uniform usage between DEV and Escherichia coli, 41 between DEV and yeast, 38 between DEV and Homo sapiens. Therefore, the yeast expression system may be more appropriate for the expression of DEV US10 gene. The information from this research may not only have theoretical value in understanding molecular evolution, but also have potential value for the further studying of this gene.