TY - JOUR
T1 - The evolution of spliceosomal introns
AU - Lynch, Michael
AU - Richardson, Aaron O.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are very grateful to N Kane, L Maquat, S Mount, L Rieseberg, A Stoltzfus, and S Zimmerly for helpful comments during the preparation of this manuscript. The work was supported by National Institutes of Health support to M Lynch and by an NSF IGERT fellowship in Evolution, Development, and Genomics to A Richardson.
PY - 2002/12/1
Y1 - 2002/12/1
N2 - Although the widespread proliferation of introns in eukaryotic protein-coding genes remains one of the most poorly understood aspects of genomic architecture, major advances have emerged recently from large-scale genome sequencing projects and functional analyses of mRNA-processing events. Evidence supports the idea that spliceosomal introns were not only present in the stem eukaryote but diverged into at least two distinct classes very early in eukaryotic evolution. Some rough estimates of intron turnover rates are provided, and a testable hypothesis for the origin of new introns is proposed. In light of recent findings on the molecular natural history of splicing, various aspects of the phylogenetic and physical distributions of introns can now be interpreted in a theoretical framework that jointly considers the population-genetic roles of mutation, random genetic drift, and natural selection.
AB - Although the widespread proliferation of introns in eukaryotic protein-coding genes remains one of the most poorly understood aspects of genomic architecture, major advances have emerged recently from large-scale genome sequencing projects and functional analyses of mRNA-processing events. Evidence supports the idea that spliceosomal introns were not only present in the stem eukaryote but diverged into at least two distinct classes very early in eukaryotic evolution. Some rough estimates of intron turnover rates are provided, and a testable hypothesis for the origin of new introns is proposed. In light of recent findings on the molecular natural history of splicing, various aspects of the phylogenetic and physical distributions of introns can now be interpreted in a theoretical framework that jointly considers the population-genetic roles of mutation, random genetic drift, and natural selection.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0959-437X(02)00360-X
DO - 10.1016/S0959-437X(02)00360-X
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12433585
AN - SCOPUS:0036888952
SN - 0959-437X
VL - 12
SP - 701
EP - 710
JO - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
JF - Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
IS - 6
ER -