Plant Physiology Preview Published on May 27, 2005; 10.1104/pp.104.055673
Received October 26, 2004
Returned for revision February 27, 2005
Accepted February 28, 2005
Local Coexpression Domains of Two to Four Genes in the Genome of Arabidopsis
Xin-Ying Ren , Mark W.E.J. Fiers , Willem J. Stiekema , and Jan-Peter Nap *
Applied Bioinformatics, Plant Research International, NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Plant Sciences Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, NL-6703 HA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Applied Bioinformatics, Plant Research International, NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Plant Sciences Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, NL-6703 HA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Centre for BioSystems Genomics, NL-6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Applied Bioinformatics, Plant Research International, NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Centre for BioSystems Genomics, NL-6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands
* Corresponding author; email: janpeter.nap{at}wur.nl.
Expression of genes in eukaryotic genomes is known to cluster, but cluster size is generally loosely defined and highly variable. We have here taken a very strict definition of cluster as sets of physically adjacent genes that are highly coexpressed and form so-called local coexpression domains. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome was analyzed for the presence of such local coexpression domains to elucidate its functional characteristics. We used expression data sets that cover different experimental conditions, organs, tissues, and cells from the Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing repository and microarray data (Affymetrix) from a detailed root analysis. With these expression data, we identified 689 and 1,481 local coexpression domains, respectively, consisting of two to four genes with a pairwise Pearson's correlation coefficient larger than 0.7. This number is approximately 1- to 5-fold higher than the numbers expected by chance. A small (5%-10%) yet significant fraction of genes in the Arabidopsis genome is therefore organized into local coexpression domains. These local coexpression domains were distributed over the genome. Genes in such local domains were for the major part not categorized in the same functional category (GOslim). Neither tandemly duplicated genes nor shared promoter sequence nor gene distance explained the occurrence of coexpression of genes in such chromosomal domains. This indicates that other parameters in genes or gene positions are important to establish coexpression in local domains of Arabidopsis chromosomes.
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
L. E. Flagel, L. Chen, B. Chaudhary, and J. F. Wendel
Coordinated and Fine-Scale Control of Homoeologous Gene Expression in Allotetraploid Cotton
J. Hered.,
July 1, 2009;
100(4):
487 - 490.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
B. S. Zheng, E. Ronnberg, L. Viitanen, T. A. Salminen, K. Lundgren, T. Moritz, and J. Edqvist
Arabidopsis sterol carrier protein-2 is required for normal development of seeds and seedlings
J. Exp. Bot.,
September 1, 2008;
59(12):
3485 - 3499.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
N. Krom and W. Ramakrishna
Comparative Analysis of Divergent and Convergent Gene Pairs and Their Expression Patterns in Rice, Arabidopsis, and Populus
Plant Physiology,
August 1, 2008;
147(4):
1763 - 1773.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
T. J. Parnell, E. J. Kuhn, B. L. Gilmore, C. Helou, M. S. Wold, and P. K. Geyer
Identification of Genomic Sites That Bind the Drosophila Suppressor of Hairy-wing Insulator Protein.
Mol. Cell. Biol.,
August 1, 2006;
26(16):
5983 - 5993.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
D. O'Rourke, D. Baban, M. Demidova, R. Mott, and J. Hodgkin
Genomic clusters, putative pathogen recognition molecules, and antimicrobial genes are induced by infection of C. elegans with M. nematophilum
Genome Res.,
August 1, 2006;
16(8):
1005 - 1016.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
M. W. E. J. Fiers, H. van de Wetering, T. H. J. M. Peeters, J. J. van Wijk, and J.-P. Nap
DNAVis: interactive visualization of comparative genome annotations
Bioinformatics,
February 1, 2006;
22(3):
354 - 355.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|
|
|