The ambiguous boundary between genes and pseudogenes: the dead rise up, or do they?

@article{citeulike:1572693, abstract = {Pseudogenes have long been considered to be 'dead', nonfunctional by-products of genome evolution. However, several lines of evidence now show that some pseudogenes are transcriptionally 'alive', and a few might even have biochemical roles. Therefore, the boundary between genes (often considered to be 'living') and pseudogenes (often considered to be 'dead') might be ambiguous and difficult to define. Here, we examine the evidence for and against pseudogene functionality, and we argue that the time is ripe for revising the definition of a pseudogene. Furthermore, we suggest a classification system to accommodate pseudogenes with various levels of functionality.}, address = {Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. deyou.zheng@yale.edu}, author = {Zheng, D. and Gerstein, M. B. }, citeulike-article-id = {1572693}, doi = {10.1016/j.tig.2007.03.003}, issn = {0168-9525}, journal = {Trends Genet}, keywords = {pseudogene, review}, month = {May}, number = {5}, pages = {219--224}, posted-at = {2007-08-17 17:28:10}, priority = {2}, title = {The ambiguous boundary between genes and pseudogenes: the dead rise up, or do they?}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2007.03.003}, volume = {23}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1572693 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1572693 TI - The ambiguous boundary between genes and pseudogenes: the dead rise up, or do they? JF - Trends Genet VL - 23 IS - 5 SP - 219 EP - 224 AD - Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, 266 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. deyou.zheng@yale.edu SN - 0168-9525 N2 - Pseudogenes have long been considered to be 'dead', nonfunctional by-products of genome evolution. However, several lines of evidence now show that some pseudogenes are transcriptionally 'alive', and a few might even have biochemical roles. Therefore, the boundary between genes (often considered to be 'living') and pseudogenes (often considered to be 'dead') might be ambiguous and difficult to define. Here, we examine the evidence for and against pseudogene functionality, and we argue that the time is ripe for revising the definition of a pseudogene. Furthermore, we suggest a classification system to accommodate pseudogenes with various levels of functionality. KW - pseudogene KW - review AU - Zheng, D AU - Gerstein, MB PY - 2007/05// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2007.03.003 ER -