Mk. Sakharkar et al., Generation of a database containing discordant intron positions in eukaryotic genes (MIDB), BIOINFORMAT, 17(8), 2001, pp. 671-675
Motivation: Intron sliding is the relocation of intron-exon boundaries over
short distances and is often also referred to as intron slippage or intron
migration or intron drift. We have generated a database containing discord
ant intron positions in homologous genes (MIDB-Mismatched Intron DataBase).
Discordant intron positions are those that are either closely located in h
omologous genes (within a window of 10 nucleotides) or an intron position t
hat is present in one gene but not in any of its homologs. The MIDB databas
e aims at systematically collecting information about mismatched introns in
the genes from GenBank and organizing it into a form useful for understand
ing the genomics and dynamics of introns thereby helping understand the evo
lution of genes.
Results: Intron displacement or sliding is critically important for explain
ing the present distribution of introns among orthologous and paralogous ge
nes. MIDB allows examining of intron movements and allows mapping of intron
positions from homologous proteins onto a single sequence. The database is
of potential use for molecular biologists in general and for researchers w
ho are interested in gene evolution and eukaryotic gene structure. Partial
analysis of this database allowed us to identify a few putative cases of in
tron sliding.