Evolutionary impact of limited splicing fidelity in mammalian genes.
The functional significance of most alternative splicing (AS) events, especially frame-shifting ones, has been controversial. Using human-mouse comparison, we demonstrate that frame-preserving AS events adapt and get fixed more rapidly than frame-shifting AS events; selection for smaller exon size is stronger in frame-preserving exons than in frame-shifting ones. These results suggest AS events introducing mild changes are generally favored during evolution and explain the excess of shorter, frame-preserving cassette exons in present mammalian genomes.
Zhang
Chaolin
C
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY 11724, USA.
Krainer
Adrian R
AR
Zhang
Michael Q
MQ
D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice