Abstract
Many animal and plant genomes are transcribed much more extensively than current annotations predict. However, the biological function of these unannotated transcribed regions is largely unknown. Approximately 7% and 23% of the detected transcribed nucleotides during D. melanogaster embryogenesis map to unannotated intergenic and intronic regions, respectively. Based on computational analysis of coordinated transcription, we conservatively estimate that 29% of all unannotated transcribed sequences function as missed or alternative exons of well-characterized protein-coding genes. We estimate that 15.6% of intergenic transcribed regions function as missed or alternative transcription start sites (TSS) used by 11.4% of the expressed protein-coding genes. Identification of P element mutations within or near newly identified 5′ exons provides a strategy for mapping previously uncharacterized mutations to their respective genes. Collectively, these data indicate that at least 85% of the fly genome is transcribed and processed into mature transcripts representing at least 30% of the fly genome.
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Change history
20 September 2006
In the HTML version of this article initially published online, the largest pieces of two pie charts in Fig. 1a (labeled "2–4 h" and "20–22 h") were in the wrong position. The error has been corrected in the HTML version of the article.
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Acknowledgements
This project has been funded in part with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. N01-CO-12400, the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Grant No. U01 HG003147, and Affymetrix, Inc.
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J.R.M. and S.D. contributed equally to this work. J.R.M. initiated the project and headed the molecular genetics work. S.D. headed the bioinformatics work.
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Other than F.B., all authors are employees of Affymetrix.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
Coverage of RefSeq genes by transfrags. (PDF 46 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Examples of various transcript classes identified by sequencing of RT-PCR clones containing novel 5′ start sites. (PDF 159 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 3
Distribution of intensity ratios, SOM-based centroid profiles, and dispersion index. (PDF 969 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Computationally predicted 5′ start sites. (PDF 109 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Comprehensive spreadsheet of manually curated confirmed 5′ start sites. (PDF 91 kb)
Supplementary Table 3
Expression of RefSeq genes. (XLS 3075 kb)
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Manak, J., Dike, S., Sementchenko, V. et al. Biological function of unannotated transcription during the early development of Drosophila melanogaster. Nat Genet 38, 1151–1158 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1875
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1875
