Regular location of exon starts in collagen I and VII genes with periods comparable to nucleosome repeat lengths

Abstract

Wavelet transform analysis revealed quasiperiodicity of exon starts in the genes for collagens of types I and VII. In the regions coding for the fibrillar part of the protein, the average sum length of an exon and the following intron was ∼165 nt, i.e. close to the minimal nucleosome repeat length. Such quasiperiodic segments comprising 2–5 contiguous exon+intron pairs of similar length encompassed more than 50% of exons making the fibrillar part. We also observed regular disposition of exon starts in the nonfibrillar part of collagen VII, but with a different period of 227 nt.