The de novo sequence origin of two long non-coding genes from an inter-genic region

The gene Polymorphic derived intron-containing, known as Pldi, is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) first discovered in mouse. Although parts of its sequence were reported to be conserved in rat and human, it can only be expressed in mouse testis with a mouse-specific transcription start site. The consensus sequence of Pldi is also part of an antisense transcript AK158810 expressed in a wide range of mouse tissues.

We focused on sequence origin of Pldi and Ak158810. We demonstrated that their sequence was originated from an inter-genic region and is only presented in mammalians. Transposable events and chromosome rearrangements were involved in the evolution of ancestral sequence. Moreover, we discovered high conservation in part of this region was correlated with chromosome rearrangements, CpG demethylation and transcriptional factor binding motif. These results demonstrated that multiple factors contributed to the sequence origin of Pldi.

We comprehensively analyzed the sequence origin of Pldi-Ak158810 loci. We provided various factors, including rearrangement, transposable elements, contributed to the formation of the sequence.