title: Intron length distributions and gene prediction.
abstract: Accurate gene prediction in eukaryotes is a difficult and subtle problem. Here we point out a useful feature of expected distributions of spliceosomal intron lengths. Since introns are removed from transcripts prior to translation, intron lengths are not expected to respect coding frame, thus the number of genomic introns that are a multiple of three bases ('3n introns') should be similar to the number that are a multiple of three plus one bases (or plus two bases). Skewed predicted intron length distributions thus suggest systematic errors in intron prediction. For instance, a genome-wide excess of 3n introns suggests that many internal exonic sequences have been incorrectly called introns, whereas a deficit of 3n introns suggests that many 3n introns that lack stop codons have been mistaken for exonic sequence. A survey of genomic annotations for 29 diverse eukaryotic species showed that skew in intron length distributions is a common problem. We discuss several examples of skews in genome-wide intron length distributions that indicate systematic problems with gene prediction. We suggest that evaluation of length distributions of predicted introns is a fast and simple method for detecting a variety of possible systematic biases in gene prediction or even problems with genome assemblies, and discuss ways in which these insights could be incorporated into genome annotation protocols.
authors.affiliation: Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. scottwroy@gmail.com
authors.forename: Scott William
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Penny
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000235:genetics; D017377:Diatoms / Q000235:genetics; D004748:Entamoeba histolytica / Q000235:genetics; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics; D005796:Genes; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D007438:Introns; D016805:Paramecium tetraurelia / Q000235:genetics