By analyzing the spacing of genes on chromosomes, we find that transcriptional and RNA-processing regulatory sequences outside coding regions leave footprints on the distribution of intergenic distances. Using analogies between genes on chromosomes and one-dimensional gases, we constructed a statistical null model. We have used this to estimate typical upstream and downstream regulatory sequence sizes in various species. Deviations from this model reveal bi-directional transcriptional regulatory regions in S. cerevisiae and bi-directional terminators in E. coli.
@article{arxiv.0803.1261,
title = {Chance and necessity in chromosomal gene distributions},
author = {Rutger Hermsen and Pieter Rein ten Wolde and Sarah Teichmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.1261},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
Main text plus supplementary text; 26 pages, 7 figures in total. To appear in TRENDS in Genetics (May 2008)