title: Vertebrate-type intron-rich genes in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Unit, European Molecular Biological Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany. raible@embl.de
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Raible
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tessmar-Raible
authors.forename: Kazutoyo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Osoegawa
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wincker
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jubin
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Balavoine
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferrier
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Benes
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weissenbach
authors.forename: Peer
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bork
authors.forename: Detlev
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arendt
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins