Origination of the split structure of spliceosomal genes from random genetic sequences.

ABSTRACT: The mechanism by which protein-coding portions of eukaryotic genes came to be separated by long non-coding stretches of DNA, and the purpose for this perplexing arrangement, have remained unresolved fundamental biological problems for three decades. We report here a plausible solution to this problem based on analysis of open reading frame (ORF) length constraints in the genomes of nine diverse species. If primordial nucleic acid sequences were random in sequence, functional proteins that are innately long would not be encoded due to the frequent occurrence of stop codons. The best possible way that a long protein-coding sequence could have been derived was by evolving a split-structure from the random DNA (or RNA) sequence. Results of the systematic analyses of nine complete genome sequen

SUBMITTER: Regulapati R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2565106 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature