TY - JOUR

T1 - High qualitative and quantitative conservation of alternative splicing in Caenorhabditis elegans and Caenorhabditis briggsae.

AU - Rukov, Jakob Lewin

AU - Irimia, Manuel

AU - Mørk, Søren

AU - Lund, Viktor Karlovich

AU - Vinther, Jeppe

AU - Arctander, Peter

N1 - Keywords: Alternative Splicing; Animals; Caenorhabditis; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; DNA, Complementary; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Genes, Helminth; Molecular Sequence Data; Protein Isoforms; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sequence Analysis, DNA

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - Alternative splicing (AS) is an important contributor to proteome diversity and is regarded as an explanatory factor for the relatively low number of human genes compared with less complex animals. To assess the evolutionary conservation of AS and its developmental regulation, we have investigated the qualitative and quantitative expression of 21 orthologous alternative splice events through the development of 2 nematode species separated by 85-110 Myr of evolutionary time. We demonstrate that most of these alternative splice events present in Caenorhabditis elegans are conserved in Caenorhabditis briggsae. Moreover, we find that relative isoform expression levels vary significantly during development for 78% of the AS events and that this quantitative variation is highly conserved between the 2 species. Our results suggest that AS is generally tightly regulated through development and that the regulatory mechanisms controlling AS are to a large extent conserved during the evolution of Caenorhabditis. This strong conservation indicates that both major and minor splice forms have important functional roles and that the relative quantities in which they are expressed are crucial. Our results therefore suggest that the quantitative regulation of isoform expression levels is an intrinsic part of most AS events. Moreover, our results indicate that AS contributes little to transcript variation in Caenorhabditis genes and that gene duplication may be the major evolutionary mechanism for the origin of novel transcripts in these 2 species. Udgivelsesdato: 2007-Apr

AB - Alternative splicing (AS) is an important contributor to proteome diversity and is regarded as an explanatory factor for the relatively low number of human genes compared with less complex animals. To assess the evolutionary conservation of AS and its developmental regulation, we have investigated the qualitative and quantitative expression of 21 orthologous alternative splice events through the development of 2 nematode species separated by 85-110 Myr of evolutionary time. We demonstrate that most of these alternative splice events present in Caenorhabditis elegans are conserved in Caenorhabditis briggsae. Moreover, we find that relative isoform expression levels vary significantly during development for 78% of the AS events and that this quantitative variation is highly conserved between the 2 species. Our results suggest that AS is generally tightly regulated through development and that the regulatory mechanisms controlling AS are to a large extent conserved during the evolution of Caenorhabditis. This strong conservation indicates that both major and minor splice forms have important functional roles and that the relative quantities in which they are expressed are crucial. Our results therefore suggest that the quantitative regulation of isoform expression levels is an intrinsic part of most AS events. Moreover, our results indicate that AS contributes little to transcript variation in Caenorhabditis genes and that gene duplication may be the major evolutionary mechanism for the origin of novel transcripts in these 2 species. Udgivelsesdato: 2007-Apr

U2 - 10.1093/molbev/msm023

DO - 10.1093/molbev/msm023

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 17272679

VL - 24

SP - 909

EP - 917

JO - Molecular Biology and Evolution

JF - Molecular Biology and Evolution

SN - 0737-4038

IS - 4

ER -