Cargando…
Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability
BACKGROUND: The forces underlying genome architecture and organization are still only poorly understood in detail. Overlapping genes (genes partially or entirely overlapping) represent a genomic feature that is shared widely across biological organisms ranging from viruses to multi-cellular organism...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4161906/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25159814 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-721 |
_version_ | 1782334619976204288 |
---|---|
author | Huvet, Maxime Stumpf, Michael PH |
author_facet | Huvet, Maxime Stumpf, Michael PH |
author_sort | Huvet, Maxime |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The forces underlying genome architecture and organization are still only poorly understood in detail. Overlapping genes (genes partially or entirely overlapping) represent a genomic feature that is shared widely across biological organisms ranging from viruses to multi-cellular organisms. In bacteria, a third of the annotated genes are involved in an overlap. Despite the widespread nature of this arrangement, its evolutionary origins and biological ramifications have so far eluded explanation. RESULTS: Here we present a comparative approach using information from 699 bacterial genomes that sheds light on the evolutionary dynamics of overlapping genes. We show that these structures exhibit high levels of plasticity. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a simple model allowing us to explain the observed properties of overlapping genes based on the importance of initiation and termination of transcriptional and translational processes. We believe that taking into account the processes leading to the expression of protein-coding genes hold the key to the understanding of overlapping genes structures. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4161906 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41619062014-09-19 Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability Huvet, Maxime Stumpf, Michael PH BMC Genomics Research Article BACKGROUND: The forces underlying genome architecture and organization are still only poorly understood in detail. Overlapping genes (genes partially or entirely overlapping) represent a genomic feature that is shared widely across biological organisms ranging from viruses to multi-cellular organisms. In bacteria, a third of the annotated genes are involved in an overlap. Despite the widespread nature of this arrangement, its evolutionary origins and biological ramifications have so far eluded explanation. RESULTS: Here we present a comparative approach using information from 699 bacterial genomes that sheds light on the evolutionary dynamics of overlapping genes. We show that these structures exhibit high levels of plasticity. CONCLUSIONS: We propose a simple model allowing us to explain the observed properties of overlapping genes based on the importance of initiation and termination of transcriptional and translational processes. We believe that taking into account the processes leading to the expression of protein-coding genes hold the key to the understanding of overlapping genes structures. BioMed Central 2014-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4161906/ /pubmed/25159814 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-721 Text en © Huvet and Stumpf; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Huvet, Maxime Stumpf, Michael PH Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title | Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title_full | Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title_fullStr | Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title_full_unstemmed | Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title_short | Overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
title_sort | overlapping genes: a window on gene evolvability |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4161906/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25159814 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-721 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT huvetmaxime overlappinggenesawindowongeneevolvability AT stumpfmichaelph overlappinggenesawindowongeneevolvability |