Title
Unusual Intron Conservation Near Tissue-Regulated Exons Found By Splicing Microarrays
Abstract
Alternative splicing contributes to both gene regulation and protein diversity. To discover broad relationships between regulation of alternative splicing and sequence conservation, we applied a systems approach, using oligonucleotide microarrays designed to capture splicing information across the mouse genome. In a set of 22 adult tissues, we observe differential expression of RNA containing at least two alternative splice junctions for about 40% of the 6,216 alternative events we could detect. Statistical comparisons identify 171 cassette exons whose inclusion or skipping is different in brain relative to other tissues and another 28 exons whose splicing is different in muscle. A subset of these exons is associated with unusual blocks of intron sequence whose conservation in vertebrates rivals that of protein-coding exons. By focusing on sets of exons with similar regulatory patterns, we have identified new sequence motifs implicated in brain and muscle splicing regulation. Of note is a motif that is strikingly similar to the branchpoint consensus but is located downstream of the 59 splice site of exons included in muscle. Analysis of three paralogous membrane-associated guanylate kinase genes reveals that each contains a paralogous tissue-regulated exon with a similar tissue inclusion pattern. While the intron sequences flanking these exons remain highly conserved among mammalian orthologs, the paralogous flanking intron sequences have diverged considerably, suggesting unusually complex evolution of the regulation of alternative splicing in multigene families.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020004
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
Keywords
Field
DocType
membrane proteins,sequence motif,gene regulation,introns,exons,alternative splicing,sequence alignment,neuropeptides,conserved sequence
Biology,Splicing factor,Exon,Alternative splicing,Exonic splicing enhancer,Intron,RNA splicing,Bioinformatics,Genetics,Splice site mutation,Tandem exon duplication
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
2
1
1553-734X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
8
3.01
12
Authors
11
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Charles W. Sugnet183.01
Karpagam Srinivasan283.01
Tyson Clark34210.83
Georgeann O'Brien483.01
Melissa S. Cline527143.65
Hui Wang634059.46
Alan Williams7396.86
David Kulp832992.15
John E. Blume983.01
David Haussler103161.68
Manuel Ares Jr1183.01