Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.

The Arabidopsis genome contains a large number of gene pairs that encode sense and antisense transcripts with overlapping 3' regions, indicative for a potential role of natural antisense transcription in regulating sense gene expression or transcript processing. When we mapped poly(A) transcrip...

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Main Authors: Elena Zubko, Andrea Kunova, Peter Meyer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011-02-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016769&type=printable
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author Elena Zubko
Andrea Kunova
Peter Meyer
author_facet Elena Zubko
Andrea Kunova
Peter Meyer
author_sort Elena Zubko
collection DOAJ
description The Arabidopsis genome contains a large number of gene pairs that encode sense and antisense transcripts with overlapping 3' regions, indicative for a potential role of natural antisense transcription in regulating sense gene expression or transcript processing. When we mapped poly(A) transcripts of three plant gene pairs with long overlapping antisense transcripts, we identified an unusual transcript composition for two of the three gene pairs. Both genes pairs encoded a class of long sense transcripts and a class of short sense transcripts that terminate within the same polyadenylation region as the antisense transcripts encoded by the opposite strand. We find that the presence of the short sense transcript was not dependent on the expression of an antisense transcript. This argues against the assumption that the common termination region for sense and antisense poly(A) transcripts is the result of antisense-specific regulation. We speculate that for some genes evolution may have especially favoured alternative polyadenylation events that shorten transcript length for gene pairs with overlapping sense/antisense transcription, if this reduces the likelihood for dsRNA formation and transcript degradation.
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spelling doaj-art-daa8d6a3354f4d99aa25cbade92a54132025-08-20T02:34:16ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-02-0162e1676910.1371/journal.pone.0016769Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.Elena ZubkoAndrea KunovaPeter MeyerThe Arabidopsis genome contains a large number of gene pairs that encode sense and antisense transcripts with overlapping 3' regions, indicative for a potential role of natural antisense transcription in regulating sense gene expression or transcript processing. When we mapped poly(A) transcripts of three plant gene pairs with long overlapping antisense transcripts, we identified an unusual transcript composition for two of the three gene pairs. Both genes pairs encoded a class of long sense transcripts and a class of short sense transcripts that terminate within the same polyadenylation region as the antisense transcripts encoded by the opposite strand. We find that the presence of the short sense transcript was not dependent on the expression of an antisense transcript. This argues against the assumption that the common termination region for sense and antisense poly(A) transcripts is the result of antisense-specific regulation. We speculate that for some genes evolution may have especially favoured alternative polyadenylation events that shorten transcript length for gene pairs with overlapping sense/antisense transcription, if this reduces the likelihood for dsRNA formation and transcript degradation.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016769&type=printable
spellingShingle Elena Zubko
Andrea Kunova
Peter Meyer
Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
PLoS ONE
title Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
title_full Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
title_fullStr Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
title_full_unstemmed Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
title_short Sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region.
title_sort sense and antisense transcripts of convergent gene pairs in arabidopsis thaliana can share a common polyadenylation region
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016769&type=printable
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AT andreakunova senseandantisensetranscriptsofconvergentgenepairsinarabidopsisthalianacanshareacommonpolyadenylationregion
AT petermeyer senseandantisensetranscriptsofconvergentgenepairsinarabidopsisthalianacanshareacommonpolyadenylationregion