Transcriptional Interference Promotes Rapid Expression Divergence of Drosophila Nested Genes.

ABSTRACT: Nested genes are the most common form of protein-coding overlap in eukaryotic genomes. Previous studies have shown that nested genes accumulate rapidly over evolutionary time, typically via the insertion of short young duplicate genes into long introns. However, the evolutionary relationship between nested genes remains unclear. Here, I compare RNA-seq expression profiles of nested, proximal intra-chromosomal, intermediate intra-chromosomal, distant intra-chromosomal, and inter-chromosomal gene pairs in two Drosophila species. I find that expression profiles of nested genes are more divergent than those of any other class of genes, supporting the hypothesis that concurrent expression of nested genes is deleterious due to transcriptional interference. Further analysis reveals that expressio

SUBMITTER: Assis R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5174743 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature