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MBE Advance Access published online on November 10, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msl172
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© 2006 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Accepted November 8, 2006

Research Article

The Conversion of 3' UTRs into Coding Regions

Michael G. Giacomelli 1, Adam S. Hancock 2, and Joanna Masel 3 *

1 Dpt. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1041 E Lowell St, Tucson AZ 85721, USA; present address: Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
2 Dpt. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1041 E Lowell St, Tucson AZ 85721, USA; present address: Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona
3 Dpt. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1041 E Lowell St, Tucson AZ 85721, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Joanna Masel, E-mail: masel{at}u.arizona.edu


  Abstract

A possible origin of novel coding sequences is the removal of stop codons, leading to the inclusion of 3' UTRs within genes. We classified changes in the position of stop codons in closely related Saccharomyces species and in a mouse/rat comparison as either additions to or subtractions from coding regions. In both cases, the position of stop codons is highly labile, with more subtractions than additions found. The subtraction bias may be balanced by the input of new coding regions through gene duplication. Saccharomyces shows less stop codon lability than rodents, probably due to greater selective constraint. A higher proportion of 3' UTR incorporation events preserve frame in Saccharomyces. This higher proportion is consistent with the action of the [PSI+] prion as an evolutionary capacitor to facilitate 3' UTR incorporation in yeast.

Keywords: evolution of novelty; evolutionary innovation; alternative splicing; genetic assimilation; gene length.
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