A report on single exon genes (SEG) in eukaryotes.
Single exon genes (SEG) are archetypical of prokaryotes. Hence, their presence in intron-rich, multi-cellular eukaryotic genomes is perplexing. Consequently, a study on SEG origin and evolution is important. Towards this goal, we took the first initiative of identifying and counting SEG in nine completely sequenced eukaryotic organisms--four of which are unicellular (E. cuniculi, S. cerevisiae, S. pombe, P. falciparum) and five of which are multi-cellular (C. elegans, A. thaliana, D. melanogaster, M. musculus, H. sapiens). This exercise enabled us to compare their proportion in unicellular and multi-cellular genomes. The comparison suggests that the SEG fraction decreases with gene count (r = -0.80) and increases with gene density (r = 0.88) in these genomes. We also examined the distribution patterns of their protein lengths in different genomes.
Sakharkar
Meena Kishore
MK
Scool of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Chow
Vincent Tak Kwong
VT
Chaturvedi
Iti
I
Mathura
Venkatarajan Subramanian
VS
Shapshak
Paul
P
Kangueane
Pandjassarame
P
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D016678:Genome; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D013045:Species Specificity