[Biojava-l] genes and things

[Matthew Pocock]

Ann Loraine wrote:

> I didn't even consider trans-splicing and operons...I guess
> I'm too human-centric.  Does trans-splicing happen in humans?
> (that we know of :-)

I am fairly sure that some of the mitochondrial genes trans-splice in hairy ways. I
don't know of any trans-splice examples in genomic sequence. I think sometimes an 'eat
me' RNA is tacked onto the end of transcripts that went wrong to flag them for
destruction, but this is a different thing.

Another case I thought of are the RNA genes (e.g. snRNA, tRNA etc.). I think sometimes
these are produced from a single transcript that are spliced or sheared into each RNA
product, and can even be located within the intron of a legal gene on the same strand.
I may have got this biology garbled, though. So - one transcript (polymerase on,
polymerase off) can give rise to multiple mature RNA products in human, even if these
are esoteric examples.

Matthew

>
>
> -Ann
>
> ---
>
> Ann E. Loraine
> http://www.loraine.net