Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13(11), 14813-14827; doi:10.3390/ijms131114813
Article

The Murine PSE/TATA-Dependent Transcriptome: Evidence of Functional Homologies with Its Human Counterpart

Maria Jessica Bruzzone 1 email, Paola Gavazzo 2 email, Sara Massone 1 email, Carolina Balbi 1 email, Federico Villa 1 email, Anastasia Conti 3 email, Giorgio Dieci 3 email, Ranieri Cancedda 1,4 email and Aldo Pagano 1,4,* email
1 Department of Experimental Medicine (DIMES), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy 2 Institute of Biophysics, National Council of Research (CNR), Via De Marini 6, 16149 Genoa, Italy 3 Department of Biosciences, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 23/A, 43124 Parma, Italy 4 San Martino-IST, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 25 September 2012; in revised form: 23 October 2012 / Accepted: 25 October 2012 / Published: 13 November 2012
(This article belongs to the Section Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics)
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Abstract: A series of recent studies demonstrated an unexpectedly high frequency of intronic RNA polymerase (pol) III transcription units spread throughout the human genome. The investigation of a subset of these transcripts revealed their tissue/cell-specific transcription together with the involvement in relevant physiopathological pathways. Despite this evidence, these transcripts did not seem to have murine orthologs, based on their nucleotide sequence, resulting in a limitation of the experimental approaches aimed to study their function. In this work, we have extended our investigation to the murine genome identifying 121 pairs of mouse/human transcripts displaying syntenic subchromosomal localization. The analysis in silico of this set of putative noncoding (nc)RNAs suggest their association with alternative splicing as suggested by recent experimental evidence. The investigation of one of these pairs taken as experimental model in mouse hippocampal neurons provided evidence of a human/mouse functional homology that does not depend on underlying sequence conservation. In this light, the collection of transcriptional units here reported can be considered as a novel source for the identification and the study of novel regulatory elements involved in relevant biological processes.
Keywords: RNA polymerase III; alternative splicing; non-coding RNA; potassium channel interacting protein (KCNIP4)

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MDPI and ACS Style

Bruzzone, M.J.; Gavazzo, P.; Massone, S.; Balbi, C.; Villa, F.; Conti, A.; Dieci, G.; Cancedda, R.; Pagano, A. The Murine PSE/TATA-Dependent Transcriptome: Evidence of Functional Homologies with Its Human Counterpart. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 14813-14827.

AMA Style

Bruzzone MJ, Gavazzo P, Massone S, Balbi C, Villa F, Conti A, Dieci G, Cancedda R, Pagano A. The Murine PSE/TATA-Dependent Transcriptome: Evidence of Functional Homologies with Its Human Counterpart. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2012; 13(11):14813-14827.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bruzzone, Maria J.; Gavazzo, Paola; Massone, Sara; Balbi, Carolina; Villa, Federico; Conti, Anastasia; Dieci, Giorgio; Cancedda, Ranieri; Pagano, Aldo. 2012. "The Murine PSE/TATA-Dependent Transcriptome: Evidence of Functional Homologies with Its Human Counterpart." Int. J. Mol. Sci. 13, no. 11: 14813-14827.

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