MOTIVATION: Transposon-derived Alu repeats are exclusively associated with primate genomes. They have gained considerable importance in the recent times with evidence of their involvement in various aspects of gene regulation, e.g. alternative splicing, nucleosome positioning, CpG methylation, binding sites for transcription factors and hormone receptors, etc. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the distribution of Alu repeat elements in the human genome. Such analysis is expected to yield insights into various aspects of gene regulation in primates. RESULTS: Analysis of Alu repeat distribution for the human genome build 32 (released in January 2003) reveals that they occupy nearly one-tenth portion of the sequenced regions. Huge variations in Alu frequencies were seen across the genome with chromosome 19 being the most and chromosome Y being the least Alu dense chromosomes. The highlights of the analysis are as follows: (1). three-fourth of the total genes in the genome are associated with Alus. (2). Alu density is higher in genes as compared with intergenic regions in all the chromosomes except 19 and 22. (3). Alu density in human genome is highly correlated with GC content, gene density and intron density with GC content being major deterministic factor compared with other two. (4). Alu densities were correlated more with gene density than intron density indicating the insertion of Alus in untranslated regions of exons.
MOTIVATION: Transposon-derived Alu repeats are exclusively associated with primate genomes. They have gained considerable importance in the recent times with evidence of their involvement in various aspects of gene regulation, e.g. alternative splicing, nucleosome positioning, CpG methylation, binding sites for transcription factors and hormone receptors, etc. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the distribution of Alu repeat elements in the human genome. Such analysis is expected to yield insights into various aspects of gene regulation in primates. RESULTS: Analysis of Alu repeat distribution for the human genome build 32 (released in January 2003) reveals that they occupy nearly one-tenth portion of the sequenced regions. Huge variations in Alu frequencies were seen across the genome with chromosome 19 being the most and chromosome Y being the least Alu dense chromosomes. The highlights of the analysis are as follows: (1). three-fourth of the total genes in the genome are associated with Alus. (2). Alu density is higher in genes as compared with intergenic regions in all the chromosomes except 19 and 22. (3). Alu density in human genome is highly correlated with GC content, gene density and intron density with GC content being major deterministic factor compared with other two. (4). Alu densities were correlated more with gene density than intron density indicating the insertion of Alus in untranslated regions of exons.
Authors: Dennis D Y Kim; Thomas T Y Kim; Thomas Walsh; Yoshifumi Kobayashi; Tara C Matise; Steven Buyske; Abram Gabriel Journal: Genome Res Date: 2004-09 Impact factor: 9.043
Authors: Zhong-Zheng Zhu; Lifang Hou; Valentina Bollati; Letizia Tarantini; Barbara Marinelli; Laura Cantone; Allen S Yang; Pantel Vokonas; Jolanta Lissowska; Silvia Fustinoni; Angela C Pesatori; Matteo Bonzini; Pietro Apostoli; Giovanni Costa; Pier Alberto Bertazzi; Wong-Ho Chow; Joel Schwartz; Andrea Baccarelli Journal: Int J Epidemiol Date: 2010-09-15 Impact factor: 7.196
Authors: Ivan Ovcharenko; Gabriela G Loots; Marcelo A Nobrega; Ross C Hardison; Webb Miller; Lisa Stubbs Journal: Genome Res Date: 2004-12-08 Impact factor: 9.043
Authors: Tadeusz Majewski; Sangkyou Lee; Joon Jeong; Dong-Sup Yoon; Andrzej Kram; Mi-Sook Kim; Tomasz Tuziak; Jolanta Bondaruk; Sooyong Lee; Weon-Seo Park; Kuang S Tang; Woonbok Chung; Lanlan Shen; Saira S Ahmed; Dennis A Johnston; H Barton Grossman; Colin P Dinney; Jain-Hua Zhou; R Alan Harris; Carrie Snyder; Slawomir Filipek; Steven A Narod; Patrice Watson; Henry T Lynch; Adi Gazdar; Menashe Bar-Eli; Xifeng F Wu; David J McConkey; Keith Baggerly; Jean-Pierre Issa; William F Benedict; Steven E Scherer; Bogdan Czerniak Journal: Lab Invest Date: 2008-05-05 Impact factor: 5.662