44.5%GC3 content

55.9Effective codons (Nc)

250Coding sequences

24/26GC3 rank here

Scope: nuclear genes only

NCBI table 1 (Standard). Do not apply these frequencies to mitochondrial genes, where AGA, AGG, ATA and TGA carry different meanings. The four reassignments.

What distinguishes this table

The most constrained choice in Western gorilla is alanine: of its 4 synonymous codons, GCA takes 33% of the family. Lysine sits at the other end, spread almost evenly across its options (evenness 1.00 against 0.92 for alanine). Those two families are where a codon-optimizer has the most and the least room to move.

Measured across all 59 sense codons, this table correlates most closely with Asian elephant (r = 0.993) and least with M. tuberculosis (r = 0.535). A sequence tuned for the first would need little adjustment to move here; one tuned for the second would need a great deal.

Relative to the average across the 26 organisms on this site, Western gorilla leans hardest on AAT (+0.154 against the mean) and avoids AAC most (-0.154). Those two are the codons that most distinguish this table from the others.

Preferred and avoided codons

Amino acid	Preferred	Freq	RSCU	Avoided	Freq	RSCU
Alanine A	GCA	0.328	1.31	GCG	0.067	0.27
Arginine R	AGA	0.292	1.75	CGA	0.117	0.70
Asparagine N	AAT	0.617	1.23	AAC	0.383	0.77
Aspartate D	GAT	0.587	1.17	GAC	0.413	0.83
Cysteine C	TGT	0.576	1.15	TGC	0.424	0.85
Glutamate E	GAA	0.534	1.07	GAG	0.466	0.93
Glutamine Q	CAG	0.644	1.29	CAA	0.356	0.71
Glycine G	GGA	0.296	1.19	GGG	0.186	0.74
Histidine H	CAT	0.569	1.14	CAC	0.431	0.86
Isoleucine I	ATT	0.439	1.32	ATA	0.215	0.64
Leucine L	CTG	0.283	1.70	CTA	0.090	0.54
Lysine K	AAA	0.511	1.02	AAG	0.489	0.98
Phenylalanine F	TTT	0.567	1.13	TTC	0.433	0.87
Proline P	CCA	0.359	1.44	CCG	0.085	0.34
Serine S	TCT	0.222	1.33	TCG	0.038	0.23
Threonine T	ACT	0.318	1.27	ACG	0.094	0.37
Tyrosine Y	TAT	0.573	1.15	TAC	0.427	0.85
Valine V	GTG	0.369	1.47	GTA	0.166	0.66

Full codon usage table

Amino acid	Codon	Frequency	RSCU
Alanine A	GCA	0.3280	1.312
	GCT	0.3086	1.234
	GCC	0.2962	1.185
	GCG	0.0672	0.269
Arginine R	AGA	0.2920	1.752
	AGG	0.2113	1.268
	CGG	0.1361	0.817
	CGC	0.1248	0.749
	CGT	0.1189	0.713
	CGA	0.1169	0.701
Asparagine N	AAT	0.6169	1.234
Asparagine N	AAC	0.3831	0.766
Aspartate D	GAT	0.5865	1.173
Aspartate D	GAC	0.4135	0.827
Cysteine C	TGT	0.5764	1.153
Cysteine C	TGC	0.4236	0.847
Glutamate E	GAA	0.5337	1.067
Glutamate E	GAG	0.4663	0.933
Glutamine Q	CAG	0.6439	1.288
Glutamine Q	CAA	0.3561	0.712
Glycine G	GGA	0.2965	1.186
	GGC	0.2790	1.116
	GGT	0.2384	0.954
	GGG	0.1861	0.744
Histidine H	CAT	0.5687	1.137
Histidine H	CAC	0.4313	0.863
Isoleucine I	ATT	0.4385	1.315
	ATC	0.3468	1.040
	ATA	0.2147	0.644
Leucine L	CTG	0.2828	1.697
	CTT	0.1812	1.087
	TTG	0.1768	1.061
	CTC	0.1397	0.838
	TTA	0.1293	0.776
	CTA	0.0902	0.541
Lysine K	AAA	0.5114	1.023
Lysine K	AAG	0.4886	0.977
Methionine M	ATG	1.0000	1.000
Phenylalanine F	TTT	0.5670	1.134
Phenylalanine F	TTC	0.4330	0.866
Proline P	CCA	0.3593	1.437
	CCT	0.3392	1.357
	CCC	0.2167	0.867
	CCG	0.0848	0.339
Serine S	TCT	0.2216	1.330
	AGT	0.2033	1.220
	TCA	0.1878	1.127
	AGC	0.1784	1.070
	TCC	0.1713	1.028
	TCG	0.0376	0.226
Threonine T	ACT	0.3183	1.273
	ACA	0.3000	1.200
	ACC	0.2879	1.152
	ACG	0.0937	0.375
Tryptophan W	TGG	1.0000	1.000
Tyrosine Y	TAT	0.5733	1.147
Tyrosine Y	TAC	0.4267	0.853
Valine V	GTG	0.3687	1.475
	GTT	0.2435	0.974
	GTC	0.2217	0.887
	GTA	0.1662	0.665

Provenance

Computed from 250 RefSeq coding sequences for Gorilla gorilla, sampled and counted codon by codon. Frequencies are relative within each amino acid family. Page generated 2026-08-09.

The full derivation of GC3, RSCU and the effective number of codons, along with the limits of each, is set out once in the methods note rather than repeated on every page.

Use this table

Nucleora codon-optimizes a coding sequence against this table directly, then folds the result and reports where structure would interfere with expression.

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