Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference Plant & Animal Genomes XIII ConferenceJanuary 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA
Connectrons provide a global mechanism for understanding gene expression control. The sources of Connectrons are specific sequences in the 3’UTR of some genes. The targets are specific sequences that flank sets of genes and/or exons. The lifetime of a Connectron is proportional to the shorter of two triple-helices formed by the RNA from the source sequences and the double-stranded DNA of the target sequences. During the lifetime of a Connectron, the genes in the DNA loop between the flanking sequences are inhibited from expression. Connectrons have been found in all prokaryotic, Archeal and eukaryotic genomes. This year has seen the completion of the determination of the Connectron structure of the human genome, which is a large computational task.
A general review of Connectron properties will be presented along with new methods for analyzing Connectron lifetimes and comparing genomes. Specific subsets of genes (called Control Genes) act to control the expression of other sets of genes by means of Connectrons (called Controlled Genes). The expression of the Control Genes are themselves controlled by very small sets of genes (call Super Control Genes). The results of a new subset tool –which are quite stunning - will be presented for yeast and human.
The number of Connectrons in a genome is very much dependent on the size and class of the genome – ranging from a few thousand to more than 150 million. Making sense of Connectrons lifetimes and distributions is a precursor to doing genomic simulation of gene expression control.