Discovery notes
Strong association between pseudogenization mechanisms and gene sequence length
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* Corresponding author: Amit N Khachane amit.khachane@mail.mcgill.ca
Department of Biology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Docteur Penfield Ave, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada
Biology Direct 2009, 4:38 doi:10.1186/1745-6150-4-38
Published: 6 October 2009Abstract
Pseudogenes arise from the decay of gene copies following either RNA-mediated duplication (processed pseudogenes) or DNA-mediated duplication (nonprocessed pseudogenes). Here, we show that long protein-coding genes tend to produce more nonprocessed pseudogenes than short genes, whereas the opposite is true for processed pseudogenes. Protein-coding genes longer than 3000 bp are 6 times more likely to produce nonprocessed pseudogenes than processed ones.
This article was reviewed by Dr. Dan Graur and Dr. Craig Nelson (nominated by Dr. J Peter Gogarten).