title: RNA editing differently affects protein-coding genes in D. melanogaster and H. sapiens.
abstract: When an RNA editing event occurs within a coding sequence it can lead to a different encoded amino acid. The biological significance of these events remains an open question: they can modulate protein functionality, increase the complexity of transcriptomes or arise from a loose specificity of the involved enzymes. We analysed the editing events in coding regions that produce or not a change in the encoded amino acid (nonsynonymous and synonymous events, respectively) in D. melanogaster and in H. sapiens and compared them with the appropriate random models. Interestingly, our results show that the phenomenon has rather different characteristics in the two organisms. For example, we confirm the observation that editing events occur more frequently in non-coding than in coding regions, and report that this effect is much more evident in H. sapiens. Additionally, in this latter organism, editing events tend to affect less conserved residues. The less frequently occurring editing events in Drosophila tend to avoid drastic amino acid changes. Interestingly, we find that, in Drosophila, changes from less frequently used codons to more frequently used ones are favoured, while this is not the case in H. sapiens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leoni
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy [2] Instituto Pasteur-Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome 00185, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tramontano
mesh_terms: D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D003062:Codon; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D017393:RNA Editing; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D003062:Codon