Assessing the genomic evidence for conserved transcribed pseudogenes under selection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Transcribed pseudogenes are copies of protein-coding genes that have accumulated indicators of coding-sequence decay (such as frameshifts and premature stop codons), but nonetheless remain transcribed. Recent experimental evidence indicates that transcribed pseudogenes may regulate the expression of homologous genes, through antisense interference, or generation of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Here, we assessed the genomic evidence for such transcribed pseudogenes of potential functional importance, in the human genome. The most obvious indicators of such functional importance are significant evidence of conservation and selection pressure.

Results

A variety of pseudogene annotations from multiple sources were pooled and filtered to obtain a subset of sequence

SUBMITTER: Khachane AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2753554 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature