Vertebrate-type intron-rich genes in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii.
Previous genome comparisons have suggested that one important trend in vertebrate evolution has been a sharp rise in intron abundance. By using genomic data and expressed sequence tags from the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, we provide direct evidence that about two-thirds of human introns predate the bilaterian radiation but were lost from insect and nematode genomes to a large extent. A comparison of coding exon sequences confirms the ancestral nature of Platynereis and human genes. Thus, the urbilaterian ancestor had complex, intron-rich genes that have been retained in Platynereis and human.
Raible
Florian
F
Developmental Unit, European Molecular Biological Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany. raible@embl.de
Tessmar-Raible
Kristin
K
Osoegawa
Kazutoyo
K
Wincker
Patrick
P
Jubin
Claire
C
Balavoine
Guillaume
G
Ferrier
David
D
Benes
Vladimir
V
de Jong
Pieter
P
Weissenbach
Jean
J
Bork
Peer
P
Arendt
Detlev
D
D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005796:Genes; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000235:genetics*
D011506:Proteins