Genomic overview of mRNA 5'-leader trans-splicing in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis.

ABSTRACT: Although spliced leader (SL) trans-splicing in the chordates was discovered in the tunicate Ciona intestinalis there has been no genomic overview analysis of the extent of trans-splicing or the make-up of the trans-spliced and non-trans-spliced gene populations of this model organism. Here we report such an analysis for Ciona based on the oligo-capping full-length cDNA approach. We randomly sampled 2078 5'-full-length ESTs representing 668 genes, or 4.2% of the entire genome. Our results indicate that Ciona contains a single major SL, which is efficiently trans-spliced to mRNAs transcribed from a specific set of genes representing approximately 50% of the total number of expressed genes, and that individual trans-spliced mRNA species are, on average, 2-3-fold less abundant than non-trans-s

SUBMITTER: Satou Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1488885 | biostudies-literature | 2006

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature