Minimal introns are not "junk".
Intron-size distributions for most multicellular (and some unicellular) eukaryotes have a sharp peak at their "minimal intron" size. Across the human population, these minimal introns exhibit an abundance of insertion-deletion polymorphisms, the effect of which is to maintain their optimal size. We argue that minimal introns affect function by enhancing the rate at which mRNA is exported from the cell nucleus.
Yu
Jun
J
University of Washington Genome Center, Department of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. junyu@u.washington.edu
Yang
Zhiyong
Z
Kibukawa
Miho
M
Paddock
Marcia
M
Passey
Douglas A
DA
Wong
Gane Ka-Shu
GK
D021581:Active Transport, Cell Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D017238:Genes, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D018745:Genome, Plant; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D011323:Primates; D012326:RNA Splicing / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
D012333:RNA, Messenger