The evolution of mRNA splicing in mammals
Name
890124373-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
17.14 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
61d2597635c02becfc6d419226c179c2
Author(s)
Merkin, Jason Jay
Advisor(s)
Christopher B. Burge.
Alternative Title
Evolution of mRNA splicing in mammalian tissues
Evolution of messenger ribonucleic acid splicing in mammalian tissues
Date Issued
2014
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
In this thesis, I describe investigations into the evolution of splicing in mammals. I first investigate a small class of alternative splicing events, tandem splice sites, and show how they are used to introduce and remove coding sequence in a species-specific manner. I then describe the generation and analysis of a large RNA-seq dataset from 9 matched tissues in 5 species, with the aim to investigate the evolution of splicing in mammals. I first investigate the evolution of exons that predate the most ancient divergence of species studied, finding that their splicing is frequently poorly conserved. For a subset of these exons, I identify unique regulatory properties and provide evidence linking alternative splicing to phosphorylation potential of proteins. I then consider sources of novel exons, in these species. I use these and other published data to identify one way in which splicing of novel exons impacts the biology of the cell. I also present evidence implicating genomic indels in exon creation and splicing variation.
Description
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology, 2014.
Title as it appears in MIT commencement exercises program, June 6, 2014: The evolution of mRNA splicing in mammalian tissues Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-172).
Subjects
Biology.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Persistent DSpace Link
