title: Evidence for control of splicing by alternative RNA secondary structures in Dipteran homothorax pre-mRNA.
abstract: In a recent study that identified highly evolutionary conserved sequences in three genomes of Diptera species we described an ultraconserved element found at an internal exon-intron junction of the Drosophila melanogaster homothorax (hth) gene that appeared to be involved in the control of hth pre-mRNA splicing. We also discussed a possible role of RNA secondary structure at this site in the regulation of hth pre-mRNA splicing. In this report we identify a shorter evolutionary conserved intronic element within the hth gene that is located downstream of the first element and has sequence complementarity to it. We demonstrate that intramolecular interactions between these two elements would give rise to alternative RNA secondary structures, which in turn may result in differential control of homothorax pre-mRNA splicing. We also provide additional comparative genomic data from several newly available insect genomes supporting our original conclusion that these conserved elements are important in the post-transcriptional regulation of homothorax gene expression in Diptera.
authors.affiliation: ARC Special Research Centre for Functional and Applied Genomics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Evgeny A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Glazov
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pheasant
authors.forename: Satu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nahkuri
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mattick
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019070:Cell Lineage; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D005091:Exons; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D023281:Genomics; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D012326:RNA Splicing; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C108704:hth protein, Drosophila; D012313:RNA