The intron-containing transcript: an evolutionarily conserved characteristic of the genes orthologous to nxf1 (Nuclear Export Factor 1)

Abstract

The function of the nxf1 (Nuclear Export Factor 1) gene is the nuclear-cytoplasmic transport of most mRNAs. A characteristic feature of the nxf1 genes in animals belonging to different taxonomic groups is existence of an alternative transcript with a homologous intron referred to as a cassette intron. The following databases were used: GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/); FlyBase (http://flybase.org/); and UCSC Genome (http://genome.ucsc.edu). To build secondary structures of nucleotide sequences we used a UNAFold v3.8 suite (http://mfold.rna.albany.edu/). The nxf1 cassette introns form characteristic secondary structures. The paper discusses the possible functional significance of the intron-retaining transcripts of the nxf1 genes.