The N-terminus of human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (hG-CSF) contains amino acids whose coding sequences are located in the rare codon table of E. coli.
The effect of rare codons on hG-CSF expression level was evaluated through introducing silent mutations in the 5′-end of the coding sequence.
The presence of rare codons following the ATG start codon increases the rhG-CSF expression in E. coli.