Abstract
Previous genome comparisons have suggested that one important trend in vertebrate evolution has been a sharp rise in intron abundance. By using genomic data and expressed sequence tags from the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, we provide direct evidence that about two-thirds of human introns predate the bilaterian radiation but were lost from insect and nematode genomes to a large extent. A comparison of coding exon sequences confirms the ancestral nature of Platynereis and human genes. Thus, the urbilaterian ancestor had complex, intron-rich genes that have been retained in Platynereis and human.
Publication types
-
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
-
Animals
-
Bees / chemistry
-
Bees / genetics
-
Caenorhabditis elegans / chemistry
-
Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics
-
Ciona intestinalis / chemistry
-
Ciona intestinalis / genetics
-
Computational Biology
-
Evolution, Molecular
-
Exons
-
Genes*
-
Genome
-
Humans
-
Introns*
-
Molecular Sequence Data
-
Phylogeny
-
Polychaeta / chemistry
-
Polychaeta / genetics*
-
Proteins / chemistry
-
Proteins / genetics
-
Sequence Alignment
-
Species Specificity
-
Vertebrates / genetics*
Associated data
-
GENBANK/AM114763
-
GENBANK/AM114764
-
GENBANK/AM114765
-
GENBANK/AM114766
-
GENBANK/AM114767
-
GENBANK/AM114768
-
GENBANK/AM114769
-
GENBANK/AM114770
-
GENBANK/AM114771
-
GENBANK/AM114772
-
GENBANK/AM114773
-
GENBANK/AM114774
-
GENBANK/AM114775
-
GENBANK/AM114776
-
GENBANK/AM114777
-
GENBANK/AM114778
-
GENBANK/AM114779
-
GENBANK/AM114780
-
GENBANK/AM114781
-
GENBANK/AM114782
-
GENBANK/AM114783
-
GENBANK/AM114784
-
GENBANK/AM114785
-
GENBANK/AM114786
-
GENBANK/AM114787
-
GENBANK/AM114788
-
GENBANK/AM114789
-
GENBANK/AM114790
-
GENBANK/AM114791
-
GENBANK/AM114792
-
GENBANK/AM114793