Relationship between mRNA stability and intron presence.
Introns were found to enhance almost every steps of gene expression except increasing mRNA stability. By analyzing the genome-wide data of mRNA stability published by someone previously, we found that human intron-containing genes have more stable mRNAs than intronless genes, and the Arabidopsis thaliana genes with the most unstable mRNAs have fewer introns than other genes in the genome. After controlling for mRNA length, we found mRNA stability is still positively correlated with intron number in human intron-containing genes. But in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, two different datasets on mRNA half-life gave conflicting results. The components of messenger ribonucleoprotein particles recruited during intron splicing may be retained in cytoplasmic mRNPs and act as signals of mRNA stability or simply insulators to avoid mRNA degradation.
Wang
Hai-Fang
HF
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Feng
Liang
L
Niu
Deng-Ke
DK
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D016681:Genome, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D012333:RNA, Messenger