Using Alu Elements as Polyadenylation Sites: A Case of Retroposon Exaptation Export

@article{citeulike:3484828, abstract = {Of the 1.1 million Alu retroposons in the human genome, about 10,000 are inserted in the 3' untranslated regions (UTR) of protein-coding genes and 1\% of these (107 events) are active as polyadenylation sites (PASs). Strikingly, although Alu's in 3' UTR are indifferently inserted in the forward or reverse direction, 99\% of polyadenylation-active Alu sequences are forward oriented. Consensus Alu+ sequences contain sites that can give rise to polyadenylation signals and enhancers through a few point mutations. We found that the strand bias of polyadenylation-active Alu's reflects a radical difference in the fitness of sense and antisense Alu's toward cleavage/polyadenylation activity. In contrast to previous beliefs, Alu inserts do not necessarily represent weak or cryptic PASs; instead, they often constitute the major or the unique PAS in a gene, adding to the growing list of Alu exaptations. Finally, some Alu-borne PASs are intronic and produce truncated transcripts that may impact gene function and/or contribute to gene remodeling. 10.1093/molbev/msn249}, author = {Chen, Chongjian and Ara, Takeshi and Gautheret, Daniel}, citeulike-article-id = {3484828}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn249}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/26/2/327}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18984903}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=18984903}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1093/molbev/msn249}, issn = {1537-1719}, journal = {Mol Biol Evol}, keywords = {alt-polya, alu, intron, polyadenylation, repeat}, month = {February}, number = {2}, pages = {327--334}, posted-at = {2008-11-10 09:42:08}, priority = {2}, title = {Using Alu Elements as Polyadenylation Sites: A Case of Retroposon Exaptation}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn249}, volume = {26}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3484828 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3484828 N2 - Of the 1.1 million Alu retroposons in the human genome, about 10,000 are inserted in the 3' untranslated regions (UTR) of protein-coding genes and 1% of these (107 events) are active as polyadenylation sites (PASs). Strikingly, although Alu's in 3' UTR are indifferently inserted in the forward or reverse direction, 99% of polyadenylation-active Alu sequences are forward oriented. Consensus Alu+ sequences contain sites that can give rise to polyadenylation signals and enhancers through a few point mutations. We found that the strand bias of polyadenylation-active Alu's reflects a radical difference in the fitness of sense and antisense Alu's toward cleavage/polyadenylation activity. In contrast to previous beliefs, Alu inserts do not necessarily represent weak or cryptic PASs; instead, they often constitute the major or the unique PAS in a gene, adding to the growing list of Alu exaptations. Finally, some Alu-borne PASs are intronic and produce truncated transcripts that may impact gene function and/or contribute to gene remodeling. 10.1093/molbev/msn249 IS - 2 JF - Mol Biol Evol SN - 1537-1719 EP - 334 TI - Using Alu Elements as Polyadenylation Sites: A Case of Retroposon Exaptation VL - 26 SP - 327 KW - alt-polya KW - alu KW - intron KW - polyadenylation KW - repeat AU - Chen, Chongjian AU - Ara, Takeshi AU - Gautheret, Daniel PY - 2009/02/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msn249 ER -