Differentiated evolutionary rates in alternative exons and the implications for splicing regulation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Alternatively spliced exons play an important role in the diversification of gene function in most metazoans and are highly regulated by conserved motifs in exons and introns. Two contradicting properties have been associated to evolutionary conserved alternative exons: higher sequence conservation and higher rate of non-synonymous substitutions, relative to constitutive exons. In order to clarify this issue, we have performed an analysis of the evolution of alternative and constitutive exons, using a large set of protein coding exons conserved between human and mouse and taking into account the conservation of the transcript exonic structure. Further, we have also defined a measure of the variation of the arrangement of exonic splicing enhancers (ESE-conservation score)

SUBMITTER: Plass M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1543662 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature