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Characterizing the relationship between protein-fusion and gene co-expression
1Laboratory of Computational Genomics, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10021, USA. csgunther@genomes.rockfeller.edu
Genome Informatics. International Conference on Genome Informatics
|January 16, 2002
Summary
Protein fusion patterns in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) correlate with gene co-expression. This study reveals that genes encoding fused proteins are more likely to be transcribed together, aiding in understanding gene co-expression clusters.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Proteomics
- Systems Biology
Background:
- Distinct proteins in one organism can homologize to different parts of a single protein in another.
- Previous work showed proteins with fused homologs are more likely to interact.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if genes encoding fused proteins are concurrently transcribed.
- To determine the relationship between protein fusion patterns and gene co-expression.
Main Methods:
- Identified 1010 fused protein pairs in the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) genome.
- Analyzed transcriptional profiles of genes encoding these fused protein pairs.
- Compared transcriptional similarity of fused gene pairs to randomly selected pairs using multiple distance metrics.
Main Results:
- Transcriptional profiles of fused gene pairs were significantly closer than random pairs.
- This finding was reproducible across different distance metrics.
- Fused protein pairs often share other biologically relevant properties.
Conclusions:
- Protein fusion patterns are not predictive of co-expression but are important explanatory factors.
- Curated protein fusion events can aid in characterizing gene co-expression clusters.
- Highlights the link between protein structure evolution and gene expression regulation.