Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on November 28, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(2):375-382; doi:10.1093/molbev/msm262
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
25/2/375    most recent
msm262v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Irimia, M.
Right arrow Articles by Roy, S. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Irimia, M.
Right arrow Articles by Roy, S. W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Articles

Widespread Evolutionary Conservation of Alternatively Spliced Exons in Caenorhabditis

Manuel Irimia*, Jakob L. Rukov{dagger}, David Penny{ddagger}, Jordi Garcia-Fernandez*, Jeppe Vinther{dagger} and Scott W. Roy{ddagger},§

* Departament de Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
{dagger} Molecular Evolution Group, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
{ddagger} Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Evolution and Ecology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
§ National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

E-mail: mirimia{at}gmail.com; scottwroy{at}gmail.com.

Accepted for publication November 22, 2007.

Alternative splicing (AS) contributes to increased transcriptome and proteome diversity in various eukaryotic lineages. Previous studies showed low levels of conservation of alternatively spliced (cassette) exons within mammals and within dipterans. We report a strikingly different pattern in Caenorhabditis nematodes—more than 92% of cassette exons from Caenorhabditis elegans are conserved in Caenorhabditis briggsae and/or Caenorhabditis remanei. High levels of conservation extend to minor-form exons (present in a minority of transcripts) and are particularly pronounced for exons showing complex patterns of splicing. The functionality of the vast majority of cassette exons is underscored by various other features. We suggest that differences in conservation between lineages reflect differences in levels of functionality and further suggest that these differences are due to differences in intron length and the strength of consensus boundaries across lineages. Finally, we demonstrate an inverse relationship between AS and gene duplication, suggesting that the latter may be primarily responsible for the emergence of new functional transcripts in nematodes.

Key Words: alternative splicing • Caenorhabditis • cassette exon • evolution • genome

Aoife McLysaght, Associate Editor


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J HeredHome page
L. J. Collins, C. G. Kurland, P. Biggs, and D. Penny
The Modern RNP World of Eukaryotes
J. Hered., September 1, 2009; 100(5): 597 - 604.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
A. D. Cutter, A. Dey, and R. L. Murray
Evolution of the Caenorhabditis elegans Genome
Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2009; 26(6): 1199 - 1234.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
W. Haerty and B. Golding
Similar Selective Factors Affect Both between-Gene and between-Exon Divergence in Drosophila
Mol. Biol. Evol., April 1, 2009; 26(4): 859 - 866.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 GeneticsHome page
M. Telonis-Scott, A. Kopp, M. L. Wayne, S. V. Nuzhdin, and L. M. McIntyre
Sex-Specific Splicing in Drosophila: Widespread Occurrence, Tissue Specificity and Evolutionary Conservation
Genetics, February 1, 2009; 181(2): 421 - 434.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
S. Barberan-Soler and A. M. Zahler
Alternative Splicing and the Steady-State Ratios of mRNA Isoforms Generated by It Are under Strong Stabilizing Selection in Caenorhabditis elegans
Mol. Biol. Evol., November 1, 2008; 25(11): 2431 - 2437.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Genome ResHome page
W. B. Barbazuk, Y. Fu, and K. M. McGinnis
Genome-wide analyses of alternative splicing in plants: Opportunities and challenges
Genome Res., September 1, 2008; 18(9): 1381 - 1392.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.