UMMS Affiliation
Program in Gene Function and Expression; Program in Systems Biology; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Publication Date
2012-01-04
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Algorithms; Cells; Chimerin Proteins; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1; Female; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Regulatory Networks; Humans; Male; Microarray Analysis; Models, Biological; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; RNA; RNA Isoforms; Transcription, Genetic; Transcriptome; Validation Studies as Topic
Disciplines
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology | Genetics and Genomics | Systems Biology
Abstract
The classic organization of a gene structure has followed the Jacob and Monod bacterial gene model proposed more than 50 years ago. Since then, empirical determinations of the complexity of the transcriptomes found in yeast to human has blurred the definition and physical boundaries of genes. Using multiple analysis approaches we have characterized individual gene boundaries mapping on human chromosomes 21 and 22. Analyses of the locations of the 5' and 3' transcriptional termini of 492 protein coding genes revealed that for 85% of these genes the boundaries extend beyond the current annotated termini, most often connecting with exons of transcripts from other well annotated genes. The biological and evolutionary importance of these chimeric transcripts is underscored by (1) the non-random interconnections of genes involved, (2) the greater phylogenetic depth of the genes involved in many chimeric interactions, (3) the coordination of the expression of connected genes and (4) the close in vivo and three dimensional proximity of the genomic regions being transcribed and contributing to parts of the chimeric RNAs. The non-random nature of the connection of the genes involved suggest that chimeric transcripts should not be studied in isolation, but together, as an RNA network.
Rights and Permissions
Copyright: © 2012 Djebali et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1371/journal.pone.0028213
Source
PLoS One. 2012;7(1):e28213. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
PloS one
Related Resources
PubMed ID
22238572
Repository Citation
Djebali S, Lagarde J, Kapranov P, Lacroix V, Borel C, Mudge JM, Howald C, Foissac S, Ucla C, Chrast J, Ribeca P, Marin D, Murray RR, Yang X, Ghamasari L, Lin C, Bell I, Dumais E, Drenkow J, Tress ML, Gelpi JL, Orozco M, Valencia A, van Berkum NL, Lajoie BR, Vidal M, Stamatoyannopoulos JA, Batut P, Dobin A, Harrow J, Hubbard T, Dekker J, Frankish A, Salehi-Ashtiani K, Reymond A, Antonarakis SE, Guigo R, Gingeras TR. (2012). Evidence for transcript networks composed of chimeric RNAs in human cells. Program in Systems Biology Publications. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028213. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/sysbio_pubs/5
Included in
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Systems Biology Commons