Gene length and expression level shape genomic novelties.

ABSTRACT: Gene duplication and alternative splicing are important mechanisms in the production of genomic novelties. Previous work has shown that a gene's family size and the number of splice variants it produces are inversely related, although the underlying reason is not well understood. Here, we report that gene length and expression level together explain this relationship. We found that gene lengths correlate with both gene duplication and alternative splicing: Longer genes are less likely to produce duplicates and more likely to exhibit alternative splicing. We show that gene length is a dynamic property, increasing with evolutionary time--due in part to the insertions of transposable elements--and decreasing following partial gene duplications. However, gene length alone does not account for

SUBMITTER: Grishkevich V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4158763 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature