Strong association between pseudogenization mechanisms and gene sequence length.

UNLABELLED: Pseudogenes arise from the decay of gene copies following either RNA-mediated duplication (processed pseudogenes) or DNA-mediated duplication (nonprocessed pseudogenes). Here, we show that long protein-coding genes tend to produce more nonprocessed pseudogenes than short genes, whereas the opposite is true for processed pseudogenes. Protein-coding genes longer than 3000 bp are 6 times more likely to produce nonprocessed pseudogenes than processed ones. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Dr. Dan Graur and Dr. Craig Nelson (nominated by Dr. J Peter Gogarten).