Detection and analysis of alternative splicing in Yarrowia lipolytica reveal structural constraints facilitating nonsense-mediated decay of intron-retaining transcripts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hemiascomycetous yeasts have intron-poor genomes with very few cases of alternative splicing. Most of the reported examples result from intron retention in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and some have been shown to be functionally significant. Here we used transcriptome-wide approaches to evaluate the mechanisms underlying the generation of alternative transcripts in Yarrowia lipolytica, a yeast highly divergent from S. cerevisiae.

Results

Experimental investigation of Y. lipolytica gene models identified several cases of alternative splicing, mostly generated by intron retention, principally affecting the first intron of the gene. The retention of introns almost invariably creates a premature termination codon, as a direct consequence of the structure of intron boundar

SUBMITTER: Mekouar M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2911113 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature