Thursday, 2nd May, 2019, 12:00

Uncovering de novo gene birth in baker's yeast with RNA-seq and ribosome profiling

De novo gene birth is a unique mechanism of new gene formation- unlike genes originating from duplication or fusion, de novo genes come from previously non-genic sequences-this potentially exposes completely novel peptides to selection. Several groups have previously investigated de novo gene birth in baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Interestingly, many of these analyses have produced contrasting observations. To better understand the true origins of these de novo genes, we performed the first analysis of de novo gene birth in Saccharomycotina using transcriptomics data for eleven different species of yeast as well as ribosome profiling for S. cerevisiae (doi.org/10.1101/575837). We identified more than 200 putative de novo transcripts which often appear in regions overlapping older genes on the opposite strand.

Speaker: Will Blevins, Evolutionary Genomics - Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB, IMIM/UPF)

Room Aula 473.10 (PRBB, 4th floor)