Jeffares Daniel C, Penkett Christopher J, Bähler Jürg
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.
Trends Genet. 2008 Aug;24(8):375-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2008.05.006. Epub 2008 Jun 27.
We show that genes with rapidly changing expression levels in response to stress contain significantly lower intron densities in yeasts, thale cress and mice. Therefore, we propose that introns can delay regulatory responses and are selected against in genes whose transcripts require rapid adjustment for survival of environmental challenges. These findings could provide an explanation for the apparent extensive intron loss during the evolution of some eukaryotic lineages.
我们发现，在酵母、拟南芥和小鼠中，对应激反应时表达水平快速变化的基因所含内含子密度显著更低。因此，我们提出内含子会延迟调节反应，并且在其转录本需要快速调整以应对环境挑战从而存活的基因中会被选择淘汰。这些发现可以解释一些真核生物谱系在进化过程中明显广泛的内含子丢失现象。
