title: Caenorhabditis elegans operons contain a higher proportion of genes with multiple transcripts and use 3' splice sites differentially.
abstract: RNA splicing generates multiple transcript isoforms from a single gene and enhances the complexity of eukaryotic gene expression. In some eukaryotes, operon exists as an ancient regulatory mechanism of gene expression that requires strict positional and regulatory relationships among its genes. It remains unknown whether operonic genes generate transcript isoforms in a similar manner as non-operonic genes do, the expression of which is less likely limited by their positions and relationships with surrounding genes. We analyzed the number of transcript isoforms of Caenorhabditis elegans operonic genes and found that C. elegans operons contain a much higher proportion of genes with multiple transcript isoforms than non-operonic genes do. For genes that express multiple transcript isoforms, there is no apparent difference between the number of isoforms in operonic and non-operonic genes. C. elegans operonic genes also have a different preference of the 20 most common 3' splice sites compared to non-operonic genes. Our analyses suggest that C. elegans operons enhance expression complexity by increasing the proportion of genes that express multiple transcript isoforms and maintain splicing efficiency by differential use of common 3' splice sites.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics*; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000235:genetics*; D012326:RNA Splicing / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D022821:RNA Splice Sites
references.citation: Brief Funct Genomic Proteomic. 2004 Nov;3(3):199-211
references.pmid: 15642184
references.citation: Nat Genet. 2008 Dec;40(12):1413-5
references.pmid: 18978789
references.citation: RNA. 2005 Mar;11(3):248-53
references.pmid: 15661845
references.citation: RNA. 1996 Apr;2(4):380-8
references.pmid: 8634918
references.citation: Genome Res. 2000 Aug;10(8):1115-25
references.pmid: 10958630
references.citation: PLoS Genet. 2009 Nov;5(11):e1000708
references.pmid: 19893607
references.citation: Science. 2003 Dec 19;302(5653):2141-4
references.pmid: 14684825
references.citation: Nature. 2002 Jul 11;418(6894):236-43
references.pmid: 12110900
references.citation: Nucleic Acids Res. 2000 Jan 1;28(1):91-3
references.pmid: 10592190
references.citation: Nature. 2002 Jun 20;417(6891):851-4
references.pmid: 12075352
references.citation: WormBook. 2005 Sep 26;:1-13
references.pmid: 18050427
references.citation: Nature. 2008 Nov 27;456(7221):470-6
references.pmid: 18978772
references.citation: Trends Genet. 2001 Feb;17(2):100-7
references.pmid: 11173120
references.citation: Nat Rev Genet. 2003 Feb;4(2):112-20
references.pmid: 12560808
references.citation: Bioessays. 1998 Jun;20(6):480-7
references.pmid: 9699460