Abstract

To understand gene evolution in depth, studying evolution of both exon and intron in terms of their size, position, number and GC content is important. Till one and half decades, introns were considered as junk DNA and were out of focus from studies involving gene expression. However, a major breakthrough on introns, as playing significant role in splicing mechanism ultimately regulating gene expression, motivated researchers to explore more. Intron length depends on a number of factors like presence of RNA genes, regulatory elements, insertion of transposable elements, frequency and size of deletions etc. The genome of drosophila is 70% homologous to humans and hence human genes can be matched against drosophila counterparts. Therefore, studies on drosophila models will help in development of effective drugs. The major goal of this study is to explore the exon-intron architecture of X-linked and autosome-linked genes of Drosophila species and among their closely related species.

Authors and Affiliations