Processed Pseudogenes and Their Functional Resurrection in the Human and Mouse Genomes

Hiroaki Sakai, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan
Takeshi Itoh, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan
Takashi Gojobori, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan

Published online: July 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0021000

The genomes of human and mouse contain thousands of pseudogenes. Processed pseudogenes, which were derived through retrotransposition, were recognized as ‘dead on arrival’ elements in the genomes, and they have been thought to have no contribution to genome evolution. However, several recent studies have shown that a significant portion of processed pseudogenes were transcribed and were able to function as noncoding ribonucleic acid (RNA) genes. Since the transcription mechanism and functions of transcribed processed pseudogenes still remain unknown, it is of great importance to elucidate the biological roles of processed pseudogenes by both approaches of experiments and bioinformatics.

Keywords: retrotransposition; retrotransposed copy; retrogene; processed pseudogene; transcription

Figure 1. (a) Genomic structures of and sequence identities between Rho family members. NID stands for the nucleotide identity and AID for the amino acid identity. (b) Nucleotide alignment of the 5¢-flanking regions of the RHOB genes obtained from human, mouse and rat. The arrow indicates the transcription start site. Two cis-elements for the transcription initiation are highlighted. Protein-coding regions are underlined. The alignment was constructed by Clustal W (ver. 1.83).
Figure 2. Classification of a retrotransposed copy into four categories: retrogene, putative processed pseudogene, transcribed processed pseudogene and processed pseudogene. Light grey boxes indicate exons of a functional gene and dark grey boxes indicate retrotransposed copies. The jagged arrows denote substitutions that collapse protein-coding regions of retrotransposed copies.
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Related Sub-Topics:

Evolutionary Genomics | Molecular Evolution | Human Evolution | Evolution of Coding and Functional Modules
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Article Title: Processed Pseudogenes and Their Functional Resurrection in the Human and Mouse Genomes
 
How to Cite close
Sakai, Hiroaki, Itoh, Takeshi, and Gojobori, Takashi(Jul 2008) Processed Pseudogenes and Their Functional Resurrection in the Human and Mouse Genomes. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0021000]