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PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
17
pubmed:dateCreated
2001-9-12
pubmed:abstractText
Some genes produce noncoding transcripts that function directly as structural, regulatory, or even catalytic RNAs [1, 2]. Unlike protein-coding genes, which can be detected as open reading frames with distinctive statistical biases, noncoding RNA (ncRNA) gene sequences have no obvious inherent statistical biases [3]. Thus, genome sequence analyses reveal novel protein-coding genes, but any novel ncRNA genes remain invisible. Here, we describe a computational comparative genomic screen for ncRNA genes. The key idea is to distinguish conserved RNA secondary structures from a background of other conserved sequences using probabilistic models of expected mutational patterns in pairwise sequence alignments. We report the first whole-genome screen for ncRNA genes done with this method, in which we applied it to the "intergenic" spacers of Escherichia coli using comparative sequence data from four related bacteria. Starting from >23,000 conserved interspecies pairwise alignments, the screen predicted 275 candidate structural RNA loci. A sample of 49 candidate loci was assayed experimentally. At least 11 loci expressed small, apparently noncoding RNA transcripts of unknown function. Our computational approach may be used to discover structural ncRNA genes in any genome for which appropriate comparative genome sequence data are available.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Sep
pubmed:issn
0960-9822
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
4
pubmed:volume
11
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1369-73
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2001
pubmed:articleTitle
Computational identification of noncoding RNAs in E. coli by comparative genomics.
pubmed:affiliation
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't