Phylogenetically Older Introns Strongly Correlate With Module Boundaries in Ancient Proteins
Abstract
The hypothesis that some (but not all) introns were used to construct ancient genes by exon shuffling of modules at the earliest stages of evolution is supported by the finding of an excess of phase-zero intron positions in the boundary regions of such modules in 276 ancient proteins (defined as common to eukaryotes and prokaryotes). Here we show further that as phase-zero intron positions are shared by distant taxa, and thus are truly phylogenetically ancient, their excess in the boundaries becomes greater, rising to an 80% excess if shared by four out of the five taxa: vertebrates, invertebrates, fungi, plants, and protists.
Footnotes
-
Article and publication are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.1008203. Article published online before print in May 2003.
-
↵2 Present address: Dept. of Medicine, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH 43614-5809, USA.
-
↵3 Present address: Genzyme Corp., Framingham, MA 01701, USA.
-
↵4 Corresponding author. E-MAIL gilbert{at}nucleus.harvard.edu; FAX (617) 496-4313.
-
- Accepted March 21, 2003.
- Received November 18, 2002.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
