Intron conservation

[Brian Foley]

Mart Speek (mspeek at ebc.ee) wrote:
: Dear Netwalkers;

: Does anyone know what is the level of conservation in introns between 
: similar genes in different organisms? 

	It is variable, depending upon:

1) How long the organisms have been evolutionarily diverged.
	An insect intron will have less in common with a mouse intron
than a rat intron will have with a mouse intron.

2) The mutation rates for the organisms in question.
	Rodents have higher mutation rates than primates, so 
two mouse species that diverged from a common ancestor exactly
1.2 million years ago, will have less in common than two
primate species that diverged exactly 1.2 million years ago.


: Please respond to mspeek at itsa.ucsf.edu

	If you want to benefit from a newsgroup, you should
also participate.

--
********************************************************************
*  Brian Foley               *     If we knew what we were doing   *
*  Molecular Genetics Dept.  *     it wouldn't be called research  *
*  University of Vermont     *                                     *
********************************************************************