The human genom - how is it distributed?

[Mr RJ Dickinson]

Bill Tivol / Susan Hogarth debate

regarding the discussion of whether or not ORFs can be distributed on both
strands of the mammalian genome such that a given sense strand for one
gene could be the antisense of another - what about genes for which there
is demonstrable antisense transcription of a coding sequence, such as
(from memory) the bFGF (at least I think it is bFGF) gene with the
antisense transcript gfg (attempted cut and paste of relevant MEDLINE
follows)

UI  - 95091784
AU  - Knee RS
AU  - Pitcher SE
AU  - Murphy PR
TI  - Basic fibroblast growth factor sense (FGF) and antisense (gfg) RNA
      transcripts are expressed in unfertilized human oocytes and in
      differentiated adult tissues.
GS  - gfg
GS  - bFGF
SI  - GENBANK/L31408
DP  - 1994 Nov 30
TA  - Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.
PG  - 577-583
IP  - 1
VI  - 205
AB  - Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a highly conserved and
      ubiquitously distributed mitogen. In amphibian oocytes bFGF mRNA is
      regulated post-transcriptionally by interaction with an antisense
RNA
      transcript. We used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction
(RT-
      PCR) and Northern hybridization to determine the presence of bFGF
and
      its antisense RNA (gfg) in unfertilized human oocytes and postnatal
      differentiated tissues. BFGF and gfg transcripts were co-expressed
in
      many tissues, with bFGF transcripts (7, 3.7 and 1.8 kb) being more
      abundant than the gfg transcript (1.5 kb) in 8 of 16 tissues
examined.
      Sense and antisense expression was approximately equal in kidney and
      colon, while in heart, liver, skeletal muscle and testis gfg
      transcripts predominated. RT-PCR demonstrated the presence of bFGF
and
      gfg transcripts in unfertilized oocytes where the antisense
transcript
      was present in excess of the sense transcript. These findings
suggest a
      role for gfg in regulation of bFGF expression.
AD  - Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University,
Halifax,
      Nova Scotia, Canada.
SO  - Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1994 Nov 30;205(1):577-583



surely these events, although admittedly rare, ought to be mentioned
(isn't there something similar with c-myc regulation as well)?

Rob Dickinson
DHA, University of Oxford, England