Influence of the 3'-UTR-length of mKIAA cDNAs and their sequence features to the mRNA expression level in the brain.

We have previously described the sequence features of approximately 1500 mouse KIAA (mKIAA) genes in comparison with those of human KIAA genes (Okazaki, N., Kikuno, R., Inamoto, S., Hara, Y., Nagase, T., Ohara, O., and Koga, H. 2002, DNA Res., 9, 179-188; Okazaki, N., Kikuno, R., Ohara, R., Inamoto, S., Aizawa, H., Yuasa, S., Nakajima, D., Nagase, T., Ohara, O., and Koga, H. 2003, DNA Res., 10, 35-48; Okazaki, N., Kikuno, R., Ohara, R., Inamoto, S., Koseki, H., Hiraoka, S., Saga, Y., Nagase, T., Ohara, O., and Koga, H. 2003, DNA Res., 10, 167-180; and Okazaki, N., F-Kikuno, R., Ohara, R., Inamoto, S., Koseki, H., Hiraoka, S., Saga, Y., Seino, S., Nishimura, M., Kaisho, T., Hoshino, K., Kitamura, H., Nagase, T., Ohara, O., and Koga, H. 2004, DNA Res., 11, 205-218). To validate the orthologous relationship between mKIAA and KIAA genes in detail, we examined their chromosomal positions and evolutionary rate of synonymous substitutions and confirmed that >93% of the mKIAA/KIAA gene pairs are orthologous. During the sequence analysis of mKIAA genes, we found that 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) lengths of mKIAA and KIAA genes are extremely long. In the meanwhile, we have also examined the tissue-specific expression of approximately 1700 mKIAA genes using cDNA microarray and verified predominantly their expression in adult brain (Koga, H., Yuasa, S., Nagase, T., Shimada, K., Nagano, M., Imai, K., Ohara, R., Nakajima, D., Murakami, M., Kawai, M., Miki, F., Magae, J., Inamoto, S., Okazaki, N., Ohara, O. 2004, DNA Res., 11, 293-304). To connect these two evidences, we statistically analysed the relationship between them by using the mKIAA genes. Consequently, a positive correlation was observed between the 3'-UTR lengths and the relative expression intensities in adult brain. Furthermore, we searched sequence elements in the 3'-UTR possibly related with their expression and found some candidates regarding the brain-specific expression.