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Vestiges of lost introns in the thermal stability map of DNA
Author(s) -
Hanai Ryo,
Suyama Akira,
Wada Akiyoshi
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(88)81432-7
Subject(s) - intron , complementary dna , thermal stability , gene , coding region , biology , dna , genetics , chemistry , organic chemistry
The absence of introns in prokaryotic genes has been explained by intron loss on various bases. Here we report another piece of evidence on intron loss, which was found in the thermal stability map of DNA. We calculated the local melting temperature of cDNA sequences and found that (i) gaps in thermal stability tend to occur near intron positions with a statistical significance, and (ii) one‐third of the gaps far from intron positions can be assigned to lost introns. From these results we conclude that the gaps of thermal stability in protein coding regions are the vestiges of lost introns.