Nucleic Acids Research, 2000, Vol. 28, No. 18 3411-3416
© 2000 Oxford University Press
SURVEY AND SUMMARY
Exonintron organization of genes in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum
Institute of Biochemistry, Warsaw University, Zwirki i Wigury 93, 02089 Warsaw, Poland
The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a morphologically simple organism with a large and complex genome. The exonintron organization of its genes exhibits features typical for protists and fungi as well as those characteristic for the evolutionarily more advanced species. This indicates that both the taxonomic position as well as the size of the genome shape the exonintron organization of an organism. The average gene has 3.7 introns which are on average 138 bp, with a rather narrow size distribution. Introns are enriched in AT base pairs by 13% relative to exons. The consensus sequences at exonintron boundaries resemble those found for other species, with minor differences between short and long introns. A unique feature of P.polycephalum introns is the strong preference for pyrimidines in the coding strand throughout their length, without a particular enrichment at the 3'-ends.
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