High Density of Ancient Introns in Oxymonad Excavates
Author Information
Author(s): Claudio H Slamovits, Patrick J Keeling
Primary Institution: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Botany Department, University of British Columbia
Hypothesis
The study investigates the intron density in the oxymonad Streblomastix strix to understand its evolutionary implications.
Conclusion
The genome of the ancestor of excavates likely contained many introns, which have evolved differently across excavate lineages.
Supporting Evidence
- Streblomastix genes contain an unexpectedly high intron density of about 1.1 introns per gene.
- Over 50% of these introns are at positions shared with a broad spectrum of eukaryotes.
- The study suggests that the ancestor of excavates was relatively intron-rich.
Takeaway
Scientists looked at a tiny creature called Streblomastix and found it has a lot of ancient pieces in its genes that help it make proteins, which is surprising because similar creatures usually have very few.
Methodology
Environmental expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing was used to identify genes from Streblomastix strix.
Limitations
The study is limited by the small number of known oxymonad sequences and potential truncation of some sequences.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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