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No Expression Divergence despite Transcriptional Interference between Nested Protein-Coding Genes in Mammals.

Raquel Assis1

  • 1Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA.

Genes
|September 28, 2021
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Summary

Mammalian nested genes evolved but are retained less often than in fruit flies. Lower selection efficiency in mammals may cause rapid removal of harmful nested genes to prevent transcriptional interference.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genomics
  • Molecular biology

Background:

  • Nested protein-coding genes have evolved across metazoans.
  • Previous studies suggested large introns explained nested gene accumulation.
  • Recent RNA-seq studies highlight transcriptional interference in fruit fly nested genes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of transcriptional interference in mammalian nested gene evolution.
  • To compare mammalian nested gene evolution with findings in Drosophila.
  • To analyze strand-specific RNA-seq data from human and mouse.

Main Methods:

  • Genomic survey of mammalian nested genes.
  • Analysis of strand-specific RNA-seq data from human and mouse.
  • Comparison of expression divergence between nested and unnested genes.

Main Results:

  • Mammalian nested genes accumulated over evolutionary time but are retained less frequently than in Drosophila.
  • Mammalian nested genes show properties consistent with transcriptional interference.
  • Expression divergence in mammalian nested genes is not statistically different from unnested genes and does not increase after nesting.

Conclusions:

  • Lower selection efficiencies in mammals may limit gene expression evolution.
  • Mammals may rapidly eliminate deleterious nested genes to avoid transcriptional interference.
  • Transcriptional interference plays a role in mammalian nested gene evolution, but selection pressures differ from Drosophila.