Lengthening of 3'UTR increases with morphological complexity in animal evolution.
BACKGROUND
Evolutionary expansion of gene regulatory circuits seems to boost morphological complexity. However, the expansion patterns and the quantification relationships have not yet been identified. In this study, we focus on the regulatory circuits at the post-transcriptional level, investigating whether and how this principle may apply.


RESULTS
By analysing the structure of mRNA transcripts in multiple metazoan species, we observed a striking exponential correlation between the length of 3' untranslated regions (3'UTR) and morphological complexity as measured by the number of cell types in each organism. Cellular diversity was similarly associated with the accumulation of microRNA genes and their putative targets. We propose that the lengthening of 3'UTRs together with a commensurate exponential expansion in post-transcriptional regulatory circuits can contribute to the emergence of new cell types during animal evolution.
Genome and Systems Biology Degree Program, Department of Life Science, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 116, Taiwan.
Cho-Yi
CY
Chen
Shui-Tein
ST
Chen
Hsueh-Fen
HF
Juan
Hsuan-Cheng
HC
Huang
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002477:Cells / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions