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Evolutionarily Stable Association of Intronic snoRNAs and microRNAs with Their Host Genes

Hoeppner, MP; White, S; Jeffares, DC; Poole, AM; (2009) Evolutionarily Stable Association of Intronic snoRNAs and microRNAs with Their Host Genes. Genome Biology and Evolution , 1 420 - 428. 10.1093/gbe/evp045. Green open access

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Abstract

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are integral to a range of processes, including ribosome biogenesis and gene regulation. Some are intron encoded, and this organization may facilitate coordinated coexpression of host gene and RNA. However, snoRNAs and miRNAs are known to be mobile, so intron-RNA associations may not be evolutionarily stable. We have used genome alignments across 11 mammals plus chicken to examine positional orthology of snoRNAs and miRNAs and report that 21% of annotated snoRNAs and 11% of miRNAs are positionally conserved across mammals. Among RNAs traceable to the bird-mammal common ancestor, 98% of snoRNAs and 76% of miRNAs are intronic. Comparison of the most evolutionarily stable mammalian intronic snoRNAs with those positionally conserved among primates reveals that the former are more overrepresented among host genes involved in translation or ribosome biogenesis and are more broadly and highly expressed. This stability is likely attributable to a requirement for overlap between host gene and intronic snoRNA expression profiles, consistent with an ancestral role in ribosome biogenesis. In contrast, whereas miRNA positional conservation is comparable to that observed for snoRNAs, intronic miRNAs show no obvious association with host genes of a particular functional category, and no statistically significant differences in host gene expression are found between those traceable to mammalian or primate ancestors. Our results indicate evolutionarily stable associations of numerous intronic snoRNAs and miRNAs and their host genes, with probable continued diversification of snoRNA function from an ancestral role in ribosome biogenesis.

Type: Article
Title: Evolutionarily Stable Association of Intronic snoRNAs and microRNAs with Their Host Genes
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evp045
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evp045
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.or g/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: SnoRNA, miRNA, intron, evolution, small nucleolar rnas, noncoding rnas, 2'-o-ribose methylation, spliceosomal rna, guide, pseudouridylation, database, transcription, complexity, libraries
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/142463
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