Minimal Introns Are Not “Junk”

作者：Jun Yu, Zhi-Yong Yang, Miho Kibukawa, Marcia N. Paddock, Douglas A. Passey, Gane Ka‐Shu Wong · 发表于：Genome Research · 年份：2002 · DOI：10.1101/gr.224602 · 被引用次数：89 · 研究领域：RNA Research and Splicing、RNA modifications and cancer、RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

Intron-size distributions for most multicellular (and some unicellular) eukaryotes have a sharp peak at their "minimal intron" size. Across the human population, these minimal introns exhibit an abundance of insertion-deletion polymorphisms, the effect of which is to maintain their optimal size. We argue that minimal introns affect function by enhancing the rate at which mRNA is exported from the cell nucleus.