Uncovering de novo gene birth in yeast using deep transcriptomics

De novo gene origination has been recently established as an important mechanism for the formation of new genes. In organisms with a large genome, intergenic and intronic regions provide plenty of raw material for new transcriptional events to occur, but little is know about how de novo transcripts originate in more densely-packed genomes. Here, we identify 213 de novo originated transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using deep transcriptomics and genomic synteny information from multiple yeast species grown in two different conditions. We find that about half of the de novo transcripts are expressed from regions which already harbor other genes in the opposite orientation; these transcripts show similar expression changes in response to stress as their overlapping counterparts, and some appear to translate small proteins. Thus, a large fraction of de novo genes in yeast are likely to co-evolve with already existing genes. Genome-wide studies of de novo genes have tended to focus on genomic open reading frames (ORFs). Here, Blevins et al. use deep transcriptomics and synteny information to identify de novo transcripts in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, many of which are expressed from the alternative DNA strand.

Automated summary

Recent research has identified 213 de novo originated transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with half of them expressed from regions that already contain other genes. These transcripts show similar expression changes in response to stress and some are capable of translating small proteins.