Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Researchers at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIZ, CAS) found that alternative splicing tends to diminish in the process of new gene origination.

Alternative splicing is a process that allows the production of a variety of different proteins from one gene only. And new gene origination is a fundamental process underlying evolution of biological diversity. Yet, the evolutionary pattern of alternative splicing in new genes and the molecular mechanisms involved in this alteration has been rarely observed.

Here the research team headed by Dr. ZHAN Zubing from KIZ used the new genes identified in drosophila to study alternation of alternative splicing and the possible functional consequences of these genes.

Result shows that new genes tended to exhibit low degree of alternative splicing, though a few new genes were alternatively spliced. The diminishmentof alternative splicing is a general trend in new genes. Based on Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) analysis, they found that new genes might have gained diverged structures and expression patterns from their parental genes after the alternation of alternative splicing.