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Here we investigate translational regulation in bacteria by analyzing the distribution of start codons in fully assembled genomes. We report 36 genes (infC, rpoC, rnpA, etc.) showing a preference for non-AUG start codons in evolutionarily diverse phyla ("non-AUG genes"). Most of the non-AUG genes are functionally associated with translation, transcription or replication. In E. coli, the percentage of essential genes among these 36 is significantly higher than among all genes. Furthermore, the functional distribution of these genes suggests that non-AUG start codons may be used to reduce gene expression during starvation conditions, possibly through translational autoregulation or IF3-mediated regulation.

In this letter we present a simple relation, that allows one to predict the Josephson current between two unconventional superconductors with arbitrary band-structure and pairing symmetry. We illustrate this relation with examples of s-wave and d-wave junctions and show a detailed numerical comparison with the phenomenological Sigrist and Rice relation commonly used to interpret tunneling experiments between d-wave superconductors. Our relation automatically accounts for `mid-gap states' that occur in d-wave superconductors and clearly shows how these states lead to a temperature-sensitive contribution to the Josephson current for certain orientations of the junction. This relation should be useful in exploring the effects of disordered junctions, multiple atomic orbitals and complicated order parameters., 10 pages, 4 figures