Intron retention enhances gene regulatory complexity in vertebrates

Ulf Schmitz (1, 2) , Natalia Pinello (1, 3, 1) , Fangzhi Jia (1, 2) , Sultan Alasmari (4) , William Ritchie (5) , Maria-Cristina Keightley (6) , Shaniko Shini (7) , Graham Lieschke (6) , Justin J-L Wong (1, 2, 1) , John Rasko (1, 2, 8, 9)

1 The University of Sydney
2 Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Camperdown, 2050, NSW, Australia
3 Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Camperdown, 2050, NSW, Australia.
4 Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, VIC, Australia.
5 IGF - Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle
6 Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, VIC, Australia
7 School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
8 Cell and Molecular Therapies, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, 2050, NSW, Australia
9 Locked Bag 6, Newtown, NSW, 2042, Australia

While intron retention (IR) is now widely accepted as an important mechanism of mammalian gene expression control, it remains the least studied form of alternative splicing. To delineate conserved features of IR, we performed an exhaustive phylogenetic analysis in a highly purified and functionally defined cell type comprising neutrophilic granulocytes from five vertebrate species spanning 430 million years of evolution.

Mots clés: Alternative splicing; Evolution; Gene regulation; Granulocytes; Intron retention; Transcriptomic complexity

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Bio-informatique [q-bio.QM]; Génétique

Ulf Schmitz, Natalia Pinello, Fangzhi Jia, Sultan Alasmari, William Ritchie, et al.. Intron retention enhances gene regulatory complexity in vertebrates. Genome Biology, 2017, 18 (1), pp.216. ⟨10.1186/s13059-017-1339-3⟩. ⟨hal-01718559⟩