School of Life and Health Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Department of Theoretical Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
WIREs Mech Dis. 2023 May-Jun;15(3):e1606. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1606. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Homeobox genes are protagonists in developmental and cancer biology, making comprehending their regulation pivotal in multiple molecular pathways. Exitrons, also known as intronic exons, are new players in the transcriptional organization, providing additional splicing variants whose functions are still vastly unknown. Exitron splicing sites were identified in eight homeobox genes, which has not been yet debated in the scientific literature. Due to the intimate connection between homeobox genes and tumorigenesis, it is worth investing more time in understanding how these less explored exitron-containing transcriptional isoforms could play a role in modulating the homeobox gene's biological functions. The perspectives devised in this article are meant to instigate fresh debates on how the transcriptional variants retaining exitrons identified in the human homeobox genes HOXA1, HOXA9, HOXD8, NKX3.1, and DLX6 can be examined in the context of tumorigenesis. This article is categorized under: Cancer > Genetics/Genomics/Epigenetics.
同源盒基因是发育和癌症生物学的主角，理解它们的调控对于多种分子途径至关重要。外显子，也称为内含子外显子，是转录组织中的新成员，提供了额外的剪接变体，其功能仍知之甚少。在八个同源盒基因中鉴定出了外显子剪接位点，但这在科学文献中尚未被讨论过。由于同源盒基因与肿瘤发生之间存在密切联系，因此值得投入更多时间来了解这些探索较少的包含外显子的转录异构体如何在调节同源盒基因的生物学功能中发挥作用。本文提出的观点旨在引发关于如何在肿瘤发生的背景下研究人类同源盒基因 HOXA1、HOXA9、HOXD8、NKX3.1 和 DLX6 中鉴定出的保留外显子的转录变体的新争论。本文归类于：癌症 > 遗传学/基因组学/表观遗传学。
