Newly evolved introns in human retrogenes provide novel insights into their evolutionary roles.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Retrogenes generally do not contain introns. However, in some instances, retrogenes may recruit internal exonic sequences as introns, which is known as intronization. A retrogene that undergoes intronization is a good model with which to investigate the origin of introns. Nevertheless, previously, only two cases in vertebrates have been reported.

Results

In this study, we systematically screened the human (Homo sapiens) genome for retrogenes that evolved introns and analyzed their patterns in structure, expression and origin. In total, we identified nine intron-containing retrogenes. Alignment of pairs of retrogenes and their parents indicated that, in addition to intronization (five cases), retrogenes also may have gained introns by insertion of external sequence

SUBMITTER: Kang LF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3565874 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature