Genome-wide analysis of chimpanzee genes with premature termination codons.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Premature termination codons (PTCs) cause mRNA degradation or a truncated protein and thereby contribute to the transcriptome and proteome divergence between species. Here we present the first genome-wide study of PTCs in the chimpanzee. By comparing the human and chimpanzee genome sequences we identify and characterize genes with PTCs, in order to understand the contribution of these mutations to the transcriptome diversity between the species.

Results

We have studied a total of 13,487 human-chimpanzee gene pairs and found that ~8% were affected by PTCs in the chimpanzee. A majority (764/1,109) of PTCs were caused by insertions or deletions and the remaining part was caused by substitutions. The distribution of PTC genes varied between chromosomes, with Y having

SUBMITTER: Wetterbom A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2640416 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature