Studies on the Evolution and Function of Introns in 5' Untranslated Regions
Contributors: Roth, Frederick P.; Moazed, Danesh; Moore, Melissa J.; Chess, Andrew; Buratowski, Stephen; Burge, Christopher; Liu, Xiaole
Published: 2012
Language: eng
Description: The function and evolution of introns have been topics of great interest since introns were discovered in the 1970s. Introns that interrupt protein-coding regions have the most obvious potential to affect coding sequences; therefore, their evolution have been studied most intensively. Splicing of introns within untranslated regions does not contribute directly to the diversity of proteins, yet ~35% of human transcripts contain introns within the 5' untranslated region (UTR). The evolution and possible functions of 5'UTR introns (5UIs) remain largely unexplored. Here we undertook a genome-wide functional analysis of 5UIs. Our main results are as follows:
Notes: Keywords: 5'UTR, Exon Junction Complex, intron, mitochondria, mRNA export, untranslated region.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2012