Analysis of synonymous codon usage in the UL41 gene of duck plague virus

The synonymous codon usage in the UL41 gene of duck plague virus (DPV) and 21 reference herpesviruses have been investigated by using the CodonW 1.4 program, CUSP (create a codon usage table) program and CHIPS(calculated ENC value) of EMBOSS (The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite). The results reveals that the synonymous codons with A and T at the third codon positon have widely usage in the codon of UL41 gene of DPV. G + C compositional constraint is the main factor that determines the codon usage bias in UL41 gene. There were 15 codons showing distinct usage differences between DPV with Escherichia coli, 17 between DPV and yeast, 29 between DPV and Human. Therefore the E. coli expression system or yeast system may be suitable for the expression of DPV UL41 gene.