title: Protein-coding structured RNAs: A computational survey of conserved RNA secondary structures overlapping coding regions in drosophilids.
abstract: Functional RNA elements can be embedded also within exonic sequences coding for functional proteins. While not uncommon in viruses, only a few examples of this type have been described in some detail for eukaryotic genomes. Here we use RNAz and RNAcode, two comparative genomics methods that measure signatures of stabilizing selection acting on RNA secondary structure and peptide sequence, resp., to survey the fruit fly genomes. We estimate that there might be on the order of 1000 loci that are subject to dual selection pressure. The used genome-wide screens also expose the limitations of the currently available methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstraße 17, A-1090 Wien, Austria. sven@tbi.univie.ac.at
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Findeiss
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Engelhardt
authors.forename: Sonja J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Prohaska
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Stadler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D018428:Drosophilidae / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D049750:Genome, Insect; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D020506:Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D020506:Untranslated Regions