Intron size minimisation in teleosts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Spliceosomal introns are parts of primary transcripts that are removed by RNA splicing. Although introns apparently do not contribute to the function of the mature transcript, in vertebrates they comprise the majority of the transcribed region increasing the metabolic cost of transcription. The persistence of long introns across evolutionary time suggests functional roles that can offset this metabolic cost. The teleosts comprise one of the largest vertebrate clades. They have unusually compact and variable genome sizes and provide a suitable system for analysing intron evolution.

Results

We have analysed intron lengths in 172 vertebrate genomes and show that teleost intron lengths are relatively short, highly variable and bimodally distributed. Introns that were

SUBMITTER: Jakt LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9438311 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature