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ZBED6: The birth of a new transcription factor in the common ancestor of placental mammals.

ABSTRACT: A DNA transposon integrated into -the genome of a primitive mammal some 200 million years ago and, millions of years later, it evolved an essential function in the common ancestor of all placental mammals. This protein, now named ZBED6, was recently discovered because a mutation disrupting one of its binding sites, in an intron of the IGF2 gene, makes pigs grow more muscle. These findings have revealed a new mechanism for regulating muscle growth as well as a novel transcription factor that appears to be of major importance for transcriptional regulation in placental mammals.

SUBMITTER: Andersson L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3023575 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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ZBED6: The birth of a new transcription factor in the common ancestor of placental mammals.

Andersson Leif L Andersson Göran G Hjälm Göran G Jiang Lin L Lindblad-Toh Kerstin K Lindroth Anders M AM Markljung Ellen E Nyström Anna-Maja AM Rubin Carl-Johan CJ Sundström Elisabeth E

Transcription 20100817 3

A DNA transposon integrated into -the genome of a primitive mammal some 200 million years ago and, millions of years later, it evolved an essential function in the common ancestor of all placental mammals. This protein, now named ZBED6, was recently discovered because a mutation disrupting one of its binding sites, in an intron of the IGF2 gene, makes pigs grow more muscle. These findings have revealed a new mechanism for regulating muscle growth as well as a novel transcription factor that appe ...[more]

PMID: 21326889

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Project description:BackgroundGenome-wide studies of intron dynamics in mammalian orthologous genes have found convincing evidence for loss of introns but very little for intron turnover. Similarly, large-scale analysis of intron dynamics in a few vertebrate genomes has identified only intron losses and no gains, indicating that intron gain is an extremely rare event in vertebrate evolution. These studies suggest that the intron-rich genomes of vertebrates do not allow intron gain. The aim of this study was to search for evidence of de novo intron gain in domesticated genes from an analysis of their exon/intron structures.ResultsA phylogenomic approach has been used to analyse all domesticated genes in mammals and chordates that originated from the coding parts of transposable elements. Gain of introns in domesticated genes has been reconstructed on well established mammalian, vertebrate and chordate phylogenies, and examined as to where and when the gain events occurred. The locations, sizes and amounts of de novo introns gained in the domesticated genes during the evolution of mammals and chordates has been analyzed. A significant amount of intron gain was found only in domesticated genes of placental mammals, where more than 70 cases were identified. De novo gained introns show clear positional bias, since they are distributed mainly in 5' UTR and coding regions, while 3' UTR introns are very rare. In the coding regions of some domesticated genes up to 8 de novo gained introns have been found. Intron densities in Eutheria-specific domesticated genes and in older domesticated genes that originated early in vertebrates are lower than those for normal mammalian and vertebrate genes. Surprisingly, the majority of intron gains have occurred in the ancestor of placentals.ConclusionsThis study provides the first evidence for numerous intron gains in the ancestor of placental mammals and demonstrates that adequate taxon sampling is crucial for reconstructing intron evolution. The findings of this comprehensive study slightly challenge the current view on the evolutionary stasis in intron dynamics during the last 100 - 200 My. Domesticated genes could constitute an excellent system on which to analyse the mechanisms of intron gain in placental mammals.

Dataset Information

ZBED6: The birth of a new transcription factor in the common ancestor of placental mammals.

Publications

ZBED6: The birth of a new transcription factor in the common ancestor of placental mammals.

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