The evolutionary landscape of intergenic trans-splicing events in insects

Nat Commun. 2015 Nov 2:6:8734. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9734.

Abstract

To explore the landscape of intergenic trans-splicing events and characterize their functions and evolutionary dynamics, we conduct a mega-data study of a phylogeny containing eight species across five orders of class Insecta, a model system spanning 400 million years of evolution. A total of 1,627 trans-splicing events involving 2,199 genes are identified, accounting for 1.58% of the total genes. Homology analysis reveals that mod(mdg4)-like trans-splicing is the only conserved event that is consistently observed in multiple species across two orders, which represents a unique case of functional diversification involving trans-splicing. Thus, evolutionarily its potential for generating proteins with novel function is not broadly utilized by insects. Furthermore, 146 non-mod trans-spliced transcripts are found to resemble canonical genes from different species. Trans-splicing preserving the function of 'breakup' genes may serve as a general mechanism for relaxing the constraints on gene structure, with profound implications for the evolution of genes and genomes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Conserved Sequence
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Insect Proteins / genetics*
  • Insecta / classification
  • Insecta / genetics*
  • Models, Genetic
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny
  • Trans-Splicing*

Substances

  • Insect Proteins