Department of Biology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
FEBS Lett. 2011 Feb 18;585(4):641-4. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2011.01.017. Epub 2011 Jan 18.
The origin of new genes is critical for organisms adapting to new niches. Here, we present evidence for a recent de novo origin of at least 13 protein-coding genes in the genome of Plasmodium vivax. Although recently de novo originated genes have often been suggested to be initially intronless, five of the genes identified in our analysis contain introns in their coding regions. Further investigations revealed that these introns likely evolved from previously intergenic regions together with the coding sequences. We discuss the potential mechanisms for intron formation in these genes and propose that intronization be considered in the formation of de novo originated genes.
新基因的起源对于生物体适应新环境至关重要。在这里，我们提供了证据表明，在恶性疟原虫基因组中至少有 13 个蛋白质编码基因是最近从头起源的。尽管最近的从头起源的基因通常被认为最初是无内含子的，但在我们的分析中确定的 5 个基因在其编码区含有内含子。进一步的研究表明，这些内含子可能是与编码序列一起从先前的基因间区域进化而来的。我们讨论了这些基因中内含子形成的潜在机制，并提出在从头起源基因的形成中应考虑内含子化。
