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Expression of Conjoined Genes: Another Mechanism for Gene Regulation in Eukaryotes
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 10, p e13284 (2010)
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2010.
-
Abstract
- From the ENCODE project, it is realized that almost every base of the entire human genome is transcribed. One class of transcripts resulting from this arises from the conjoined gene, which is formed by combining the exons of two or more distinct (parent) genes lying on the same strand of a chromosome. Only a very limited number of such genes are known, and the definition and terminologies used for them are highly variable in the public databases. In this work, we have computationally identified and manually curated 751 conjoined genes (CGs) in the human genome that are supported by at least one mRNA or EST sequence available in the NCBI database. 353 representative CGs, of which 291 (82%) could be confirmed, were subjected to experimental validation using RT-PCR and sequencing methods. We speculate that these genes are arising out of novel functional requirements and are not merely artifacts of transcription, since more than 70% of them are conserved in other vertebrate genomes. The unique splicing patterns exhibited by CGs reveal their possible roles in protein evolution or gene regulation. Novel CGs, for which no transcript is available, could be identified in 80% of randomly selected potential CG forming regions, indicating that their formation is a routine process. Formation of CGs is not only limited to human, as we have also identified 270 CGs in mouse and 227 in drosophila using our approach. Additionally, we propose a novel mechanism for the formation of CGs. Finally, we developed a database, ConjoinG, which contains detailed information about all the CGs (800 in total) identified in the human genome. In summary, our findings reveal new insights about the functionality of CGs in terms of another possible mechanism for gene regulation and genomic evolution and the mechanism leading to their formation.
- Subjects :
- Science
RNA Splicing
Molecular Sequence Data
Computational Biology/Transcriptional Regulation
Biology
ENCODE
Genome
Exon
Mice
Databases, Genetic
Animals
Humans
RNA, Messenger
Gene
Regulation of gene expression
Genetics
Expressed Sequence Tags
Expressed sequence tag
Multidisciplinary
Genome, Human
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Chromosome Mapping
Genetics and Genomics/Gene Expression
Exons
Genetics and Genomics/Bioinformatics
Genetics and Genomics/Chromosome Biology
Eukaryotic Cells
Gene Expression Regulation
RNA splicing
Medicine
Human genome
Genetics and Genomics/Comparative Genomics
Research Article
Computational Biology/Genomics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 5
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7f8052ca6d77f8b2dc46054297e90856