Comprehensive codon usage analyses of the mutations in the Parkin protein leading to Parkinsonism

Neurodegenerative diseases typically occur due to the abnormal behavior of the proteins. One of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases is the Parkinsons disease. Parkin protein encoded by PARK2 gene is the central player in the central nervous system. Mutations in Parkin lead to the onset of Parkinsonism. In this work, we made an attempt to decipher the codon usage patterns of the amino acid residues in the different domains of Parkin protein. We observed that mutations at the first two codon positions have statistically significant disease associations. This is the first such report that analyzes the correlation between the disease severity of Parkinsonism and its association with the pattern of codon usages.