Cited by 4,071Genomics and Phylogenetic StudiesGenomics and Chromatin DynamicsChromosomal and Genetic Variations

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 97 of the 97 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 19 of the 47 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Evolutionarily conserved elements in vertebrate, insect, worm, and yeast genomes

Open access

Abstract

We have conducted a comprehensive search for conserved elements in vertebrate genomes, using genome-wide multiple alignments of five vertebrate species (human, mouse, rat, chicken, and Fugu rubripes ). Parallel searches have been performed with multiple alignments of four insect species (three species of Drosophila and Anopheles gambiae ), two species of Caenorhabditis , and seven species of Saccharomyces . Conserved elements were identified with a computer program called phastCons, which is based on a two-state phylogenetic hidden Markov model (phylo-HMM). PhastCons works by fitting a phylo-HMM to the data by maximum likelihood, subject to constraints designed to calibrate the model across species groups, and then predicting conserved elements based on this model. The predicted elements cover roughly 3%–8% of the human genome (depending on the details of the calibration procedure) and substantially higher fractions of the more compact Drosophila melanogaster (37%–53%), Caenorhabditis elegans (18%–37%), and Saccharaomyces cerevisiae (47%–68%) genomes. From yeasts to vertebrates, in order of increasing genome size and general biological complexity, increasing fractions of conserved bases are found to lie outside of the exons of known protein-coding genes. In all groups, the most highly conserved elements (HCEs), by log-odds score, are hundreds or thousands of bases long. These elements share certain properties with ultraconserved elements, but they tend to be longer and less perfectly conserved, and they overlap genes of somewhat different functional categories. In vertebrates, HCEs are associated with the 3′ UTRs of regulatory genes, stable gene deserts, and megabase-sized regions rich in moderately conserved noncoding sequences. Noncoding HCEs also show strong statistical evidence of an enrichment for RNA secondary structure.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1101/gr.3715005

Cites

97 of 97 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

19 of 47 cited sources checked · 15 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 110 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 81
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 28
101 of 101
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The tree topologies for the vertebrate, insect, worm, and yeast data sets are known.

    “The tree topologies were assumed to be known (see Supplemental material).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The primary reason for cross-species sequence conservation is negative (purifying) selection.

    “the primary reason for cross-species sequence conservation is believed to be negative (purifying) selection.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most bases in mammalian ancestral repeats are neutrally evolving.

    “which are believed, for the most part, to be neutrally evolving”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Coding regions evolve in fundamentally similar ways across species groups, more similar than noncoding regions.

    “Our approach of holding fixed the coverage of coding regions by predicted conserved elements assumes that coding regions evolve in fundamentally similar ways across species groups (more similar than noncoding regions), and that the fraction of sites in coding regions that are conserved is not highly sensitive to the phylogeny.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The fraction of sites in coding regions that are conserved is not highly sensitive to the phylogeny.

    “Our approach of holding fixed the coverage of coding regions by predicted conserved elements assumes that coding regions evolve in fundamentally similar ways across species groups (more similar than noncoding regions), and that the fraction of sites in coding regions that are conserved is not highly sensitive to the phylogeny.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    All sites evolve at one of two evolutionary rates: conserved and nonconserved.

    “The assumptions that all sites evolve at one of two evolutionary rates (conserved and nonconserved), that these rates are uniform across the genome, that sites evolve independently conditional on whether they are in conserved or nonconserved regions, and that the phylogenetic models for conserved and nonconserved regions have the same branch-length proportions, base compositions, and substitution”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The two evolutionary rates are uniform across the genome.

    “The assumptions that all sites evolve at one of two evolutionary rates (conserved and nonconserved), that these rates are uniform across the genome, that sites evolve independently conditional on whether they are in conserved or nonconserved regions, and that the phylogenetic models for conserved and nonconserved regions have the same branch-length proportions, base compositions, and substitution”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Sites evolve independently conditional on whether they are in conserved or nonconserved regions.

    “The assumptions that all sites evolve at one of two evolutionary rates (conserved and nonconserved), that these rates are uniform across the genome, that sites evolve independently conditional on whether they are in conserved or nonconserved regions, and that the phylogenetic models for conserved and nonconserved regions have the same branch-length proportions, base compositions, and substitution”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The phylogenetic models for conserved and nonconserved regions have the same branch-length proportions, base compositions, and substitution patterns.

    “The assumptions that all sites evolve at one of two evolutionary rates (conserved and nonconserved), that these rates are uniform across the genome, that sites evolve independently conditional on whether they are in conserved or nonconserved regions, and that the phylogenetic models for conserved and nonconserved regions have the same branch-length proportions, base compositions, and substitution”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    HCEs in coding regions are not expected to have extensive secondary structure.

    “We also computed FPSs for HCEs in coding regions, which are not expected to have extensive secondary structure.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Conserved and nonconserved sites are drawn independently from the distributions associated with c and n, respectively.

    “Assuming conserved and nonconserved sites are drawn independently from the distributions associated with c and n , respectively, L min is given by:”
11 of 11

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Conflicting shares of conserved bases in known 3′ UTRs

    Major

    The paper gives two different shares for known 3′ UTRs among all vertebrate conserved bases: 3.6% and 5.6%. Both statements describe the full set of conserved elements, rather than different top-scoring subsets.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

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Show all 96 references

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. 2002, Genome Biol., 3, research0086
  2. 2000, Trends Genet., 16, 21
  3. 2002, Genome Biol., 3, reviews0004.1
  4. 2004, Mol. Biol. Evol., 21, 468
  5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=OMIM; Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man home page.

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Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Siepel, A., Bejerano, G., Pedersen, J. S., Hinrichs, A. S., Hou, M., Rosenbloom, K., Clawson, H., Spieth, J., Hillier, L. W., Richards, S., Weinstock, G. M., Wilson, R. K., Gibbs, R. A., Kent, W. J., Miller, W., & Haussler, D.
Affiliations
University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
Venue
Genome Research
Published
2005-07-15
Volume
15
Issue
8
Pages
1034-1050
ISSN
1088-9051 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W7099666281
Cited by
3,971
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 176 · 2025: 182 · 2024: 220 · 2023: 183 · 2022: 233 · 2021: 261 · 2020: 217 · 2019: 219 · 2018: 225 · 2017: 160 · 2016: 195 · 2015: 186 · 2014: 190 · 2013: 191 · 2012: 196
Type
posted content
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Genome Research (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Institutional Repository (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Commons@Becker (Washington University School of Medicine) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (IP41HG02371, P41HG002371, R01HG002238)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
Keywords
conserved elements, ultraconserved elements, phastCons, multiple sequence alignment, non-coding DNA, vertebrate genomes, insect genomes, Caenorhabditis, Saccharomyces, Drosophila, Anopheles gambiae, gene deserts, 3' untranslated region, RNA secondary structure
MeSH terms
Animals, Base Sequence, Humans, Insecta, Molecular Sequence Data, Saccharomyces, Vertebrates, Yeasts, Genome, Conserved Sequence, Caenorhabditis elegans, Evolution, Molecular, Base Pairing, 3' Untranslated Regions, DNA, Intergenic

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