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Evaluation of the mechanisms of intron loss and gain in the social amoebae Dictyostelium

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, December 2015
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Title
Evaluation of the mechanisms of intron loss and gain in the social amoebae Dictyostelium
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, December 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12862-015-0567-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ming-Yue Ma, Xun-Ru Che, Andrea Porceddu, Deng-Ke Niu

Abstract

Spliceosomal introns are a common feature of eukaryotic genomes. To approach a comprehensive understanding of intron evolution on Earth, studies should look beyond repeatedly studied groups such as animals, plants, and fungi. The slime mold Dictyostelium belongs to a supergroup of eukaryotes not covered in previous studies. We found 441 precise intron losses in Dictyostelium discoideum and 202 precise intron losses in Dictyostelium purpureum. Consistent with these observations, Dictyostelium discoideum was found to have significantly more copies of reverse transcriptase genes than Dictyostelium purpureum. We also found that the lost introns are significantly further from the 5' end of genes than the conserved introns. Adjacent introns were prone to be lost simultaneously in Dictyostelium discoideum. In both Dictyostelium species, the exonic sequences flanking lost introns were found to have a significantly higher GC content than those flanking conserved introns. Together, these observations support a reverse-transcription model of intron loss in which intron losses were caused by gene conversion between genomic DNA and cDNA reverse transcribed from mature mRNA. We also identified two imprecise intron losses in Dictyostelium discoideum that may have resulted from genomic deletions. Ninety-eight putative intron gains were also observed. Consistent with previous studies of other lineages, the source sequences were found in only a small number of cases, with only two instances of intron gain identified in Dictyostelium discoideum. Although they diverged very early from animals and fungi, Dictyostelium species have similar mechanisms of intron loss.

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The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 15 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 15 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 33%
Researcher 5 33%
Student > Bachelor 2 13%
Student > Master 1 7%
Professor 1 7%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 1 7%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 40%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 6 40%
Computer Science 1 7%
Engineering 1 7%
Unknown 1 7%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 May 2016.
All research outputs
#22,759,802
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#3,511
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#336,663
of 394,040 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#76
of 78 outputs
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