Case Study on the Pattern Change in Arabidopsis thaliana Intron Sequences

Abstract

A large portion in eukaryotic genomes is introns but
their function is not yet fully elucidated. The aims of this study
are to employ the generalized Bernoulli modeling approach to
estimate the change points based on GC distribution in intron
sequences of Arabidopsis thaliana and to investigate whether
there is any correlation between gene properties (the gene
expression level and the protein function) and these intron
pattern changes. The influence of the intron length and the
number of GC on the intron sequence pattern changes is
demonstrated. Among the random sampled intron sequences,
10.71% have been identified to have pattern changes. The
number of GC and the intron length can be considered main
factors influencing the intron pattern change. Short introns
with high GC number are likely to have higher chance to have
pattern changes detected on their sequences. Little influence of
gene properties on the pattern change is found in this study.
The pattern changes identified in this study may benefit the
further investigation on intron functionality.