Chance and necessity in chromosomal gene distributions

2008/03/08 by Rutger Hermsen, Hermsen, Rutger, Pieter Rein ten Wolde +4
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #FOS: Biological sciences #Fungal and yeast genetics research #Genomics (q-bio.GN) #Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics #RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms #q-bio.GN

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0803.1261

Main text plus supplementary text; 26 pages, 7 figures in total. To appear in TRENDS in Genetics (May 2008)

arxiv created 2008/03/08 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

By analyzing the spacing of genes on chromosomes, we find that transcriptional and RNA-processing regulatory sequences outside coding regions leave footprints on the distribution of intergenic distances. Using analogies between genes on chromosomes and one-dimensional gases, we constructed a statistical null model. We have used this to estimate typical upstream and downstream regulatory sequence sizes in various species. Deviations from this model reveal bi-directional transcriptional regulatory regions in S. cerevisiae and bi-directional terminators in E. coli.

Citations

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