How are exons encoding transmembrane sequences distributed in the exon-intron structure of genes?

Abstract

The exon-intron structure of eukaryotic genes raises a question about the distribution of transmembrane regions in membrane proteins. Were exons that encode transmembrane regions formed simply by inserting introns into preexisting genes or by some kind of exon shuffling? To answer this question, the exon-per-gene distribution was analyzed for all genes in 40 eukaryotic genomes with a particular focus on exons encoding transmembrane segments. In 21 higher multicellular eukaryotes, the percentage of multi-exon genes (those containing at least one intron) within all genes in a genome was high (>70%) and with a mean of 87%. When genes were grouped by the number of exons per gene in higher eukaryotes, good exponential distributions were obtained not only for all genes but also for the exons encoding transmembrane segments, leading to a constant ratio of membrane proteins independent of the exon-per-gene number. The positional distribution of transmembrane regions in single-pass membrane proteins showed that they are generally located in the amino or carboxyl terminal regions. This nonrandom distribution of transmembrane regions explains the constant ratio of membrane proteins to the exon-per-gene numbers because there are always two terminal (i.e., the amino and carboxyl) regions - independent of the length of sequences. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 by the Molecular Biology Society of Japan/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.