Trinucleotide Repeats Are Clustered in Regulatory Genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Corresponding author: Elton T. Young, Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Box 357350, Seattle, WA 98195-7350., ety{at}u.washington.edu (E-mail)

Communicating editor: L. S. SYMINGTON

The genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains numerous unstable microsatellite sequences. Mononucleotide and dinucleotide repeats are rarely found in ORFs, and when present in an ORF are frequently located in an intron or at the C terminus of the protein, suggesting that their instability is deleterious to gene function. DNA trinucleotide repeats (TNRs) are found at a higher-than-expected frequency within ORFs, and the amino acids encoded by the TNRs represent a biased set. TNRs are rarely conserved between genes with related sequences, suggesting high instability or a recent origin. The genes in which TNRs are most frequently found are related to cellular regulation. The protein structural database is notably lacking in proteins containing amino acid tracts, suggesting that they are not located in structured regions of a protein but are rather located between domains. This conclusion is consistent with the location of amino acid tracts in two protein families. The preferred location of TNRs within the ORFs of genes related to cellular regulation together with their instability suggest that TNRs could have an important role in speciation. Specifically, TNRs could serve as hot spots for recombination leading to domain swapping, or mutation of TNRs could allow rapid evolution of new domains of protein structure.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Bowen and A. E. Wheals Evidence that Protein Length Expansion and Contraction Is Partly Due to Mutational Events in Premeiotic Cells Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2006; 23(7): 1339 - 1340. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G.-F. Richard and B. Dujon Molecular Evolution of Minisatellites in Hemiascomycetous Yeasts Mol. Biol. Evol., January 1, 2006; 23(1): 189 - 202. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Perez, F. Cruz, and P. Presa Distribution Properties of Polymononucleotide Repeats in Molluscan Genomes J. Hered., January 1, 2005; 96(1): 40 - 51. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. D. Prasad, M. Muthulakshmi, M. Madhu, S. Archak, K. Mita, and J. Nagaraju Survey and Analysis of Microsatellites in the Silkworm, Bombyx mori: Frequency, Distribution, Mutations, Marker Potential and Their Conservation in Heterologous Species Genetics, January 1, 2005; 169(1): 197 - 214. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y.-C. Li, A. B. Korol, T. Fahima, and E. Nevo Microsatellites Within Genes: Structure, Function, and Evolution Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2004; 21(6): 991 - 1007. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. M. Alba and R. Guigo Comparative Analysis of Amino Acid Repeats in Rodents and Humans Genome Res., April 1, 2004; 14(4): 549 - 554. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Pluciennik, R. R. Iyer, M. Napierala, J. E. Larson, M. Filutowicz, and R. D. Wells Long CTG{middle dot}CAG Repeats from Myotonic Dystrophy Are Preferred Sites for Intermolecular Recombination J. Biol. Chem., September 6, 2002; 277(37): 34074 - 34086. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Napierala, P. Parniewski, A. Pluciennik, and R. D. Wells Long CTG{middle dot}CAG Repeat Sequences Markedly Stimulate Intramolecular Recombination J. Biol. Chem., September 6, 2002; 277(37): 34087 - 34100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. P. Calabrese, R. T. Durrett, and C. F. Aquadro Dynamics of Microsatellite Divergence Under Stepwise Mutation and Proportional Slippage/Point Mutation Models Genetics, October 1, 2001; 159(2): 839 - 852. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Shemer, Z. Weissman, N. Hashman, and D. Kornitzer A highly polymorphic degenerate microsatellite for molecular strain typing of Candida krusei Microbiology, August 1, 2001; 147(8): 2021 - 2028. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Temnykh, G. DeClerck, A. Lukashova, L. Lipovich, S. Cartinhour, and S. McCouch Computational and Experimental Analysis of Microsatellites in Rice (Oryza sativa L.): Frequency, Length Variation, Transposon Associations, and Genetic Marker Potential Genome Res., August 1, 2001; 11(8): 1441 - 1452. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. L. Kutil and C. G. Williams Triplet-Repeat Microsatellites Shared Among Hard and Soft Pines J. Hered., July 1, 2001; 92(4): 327 - 332. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]