Abstract
ALTHOUGH eukaryotic genes are usually transcribed individually, at least a few Caenorhabditis elegans genes appear to be transcribed polycistronically in clusters resembling bacterial operons1. The spliced leader SL2 (ref. 2) is specific for trans-splicing to downstream genes in these operons1. In addition, many C. elegans pre-mRNAs are trans-spliced to SL1 (ref. 3) near the 5′ ends of pre-mRNAs4,5. Because operons have not previously been found in higher eukaryotes, we have investigated how wide-spread they are in the C. elegans genome. We identified gene clusters using the extensive data generated by the genome project6,7 and tested seven for trans-splicing specificity. All were found to fit expectations for polycistronic transcription. In addition, we sur-veyed reported C. elegans genes for trans-splicing specificity. Both methods indicate that the pre-mRNAs of about 70% of C. elegans genes are trans-spliced and as many as a quarter are transcribed in operons.
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Zorio, D., Cheng, N., Blumenthal, T. et al. Operons as a common form of chromosomal organization in C. elegans. Nature 372, 270–272 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/372270a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/372270a0
