The effects of genome size reduction on cellular processes

人类基因组非常大，我们的基因包含被称为内含子的非常长的非编码序列。正确的基因表达要求信使RNA在翻译成蛋白质之前去除内含子，这一任务是由一个名为剪接体的大型大分子细胞机器执行的。然而，并不是所有的基因组都很大。随着基因组的减少，非编码序列(如内含子)可能会缩短或丢失，复杂的细胞机器会缩小尺寸，减少组件。我建议用已知的最小核基因组来研究真核生物的剪接过程。识别无关生物中简化剪接系统的共同特征允许预测剪接体的功能核心，并识别系统中的其他限制因素(如内含子序列特征)，否则可能在更复杂的系统中被掩盖。

The human genome is very large, and our genes contain very long stretches of non-coding sequences called introns. Proper gene expression requires that introns be removed from messenger RNAs prior to their translation into proteins, and this task is carried out by a large, macromolecular, cellular machine called the spliceosome. However, not all genomes are large. As genomes are reduced, non-coding sequences such as introns can be shortened, or lost, and complex cellular machines are reduced in size and have fewer components. I propose to examine the process of splicing in eukaryotes with the smallest nuclear genomes known. Identifying common features of reduced splicing systems in unrelated organisms allows for predicting a functional core of the spliceosome, and identifies other constraints in the system (such as intron sequence features) that might otherwise be obscured in more complex systems.