TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial and temporal preferences for trans-splicing in Ciona intestinalis revealed by EST-based gene expression analysis
AU - Sierro, Nicolas
AU - Li, Shuang
AU - Suzuki, Yutaka
AU - Yamashita, Riu
AU - Nakai, Kenta
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Professor Kusakabe for valuable comments. Computation time was provided by the Super Computer System, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo. This work was supported by Culture of Japan and BIRD of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
PY - 2009/2/1
Y1 - 2009/2/1
N2 - Ciona intestinalis is a useful model organism to analyze chordate development and genetics. However, unlike vertebrates, it shares a unique mechanism called trans-splicing with lower eukaryotes. In the computational analysis of trans-splicing in C. intestinalis we report here, we discovered that although the amount of non-trans-spliced and trans-spliced genes is usually equivalent, the expression ratio between the two groups varies significantly with tissues and developmental stages. Among the seven tissues studied, the observed ratios ranged from 2.53 in "gonad" to 19.53 in "endostyle", and during development they increased from 1.68 at the "egg" stage to 7.55 at the "juvenile" stage. We further hypothesize that this enrichment in trans-spliced mRNAs in early developmental stages might be related to the abundance of trans-spliced mRNAs in "gonad". Our analysis indicates that in C. intestinalis, although there may not exist strong fundamental requirements for genes to be trans-spliced, the populations of non-trans-spliced and trans-spliced genes are likely to be spatially and temporally regulated differently.
AB - Ciona intestinalis is a useful model organism to analyze chordate development and genetics. However, unlike vertebrates, it shares a unique mechanism called trans-splicing with lower eukaryotes. In the computational analysis of trans-splicing in C. intestinalis we report here, we discovered that although the amount of non-trans-spliced and trans-spliced genes is usually equivalent, the expression ratio between the two groups varies significantly with tissues and developmental stages. Among the seven tissues studied, the observed ratios ranged from 2.53 in "gonad" to 19.53 in "endostyle", and during development they increased from 1.68 at the "egg" stage to 7.55 at the "juvenile" stage. We further hypothesize that this enrichment in trans-spliced mRNAs in early developmental stages might be related to the abundance of trans-spliced mRNAs in "gonad". Our analysis indicates that in C. intestinalis, although there may not exist strong fundamental requirements for genes to be trans-spliced, the populations of non-trans-spliced and trans-spliced genes are likely to be spatially and temporally regulated differently.
KW - Ascidian
KW - EST
KW - Regulation
KW - Sequence analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58049115624&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=58049115624&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gene.2008.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.gene.2008.10.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 18996449
AN - SCOPUS:58049115624
VL - 430
SP - 44
EP - 49
JO - Gene
JF - Gene
SN - 0378-1119
IS - 1-2
ER -