Strand compositional asymmetries in vertebrate large genes.

Both transcription-associated and replication-associated strand compositional asymmetries have recently been shown in vertebrate genomes. In this paper, we illustrate that transcription-associated strand compositional asymmetries and replication-associated ones coexist in most vertebrate large genes, although in most case the former conceals the latter. Furthermore, we found that the transcription-associated strand compositional asymmetries of housekeeping genes are stronger than those of somatic cell expressed genes. Together with other evidence, we suggest that germline transcription-associated strand asymmetric mutations may be the main cause of the transcription-associated strand compositional asymmetries.