In prokaryotes, a search for genes in a DNA sequence involves scanning the DNA sequence for long open reading frames (that is, reading frames uninterrupted by stop codons). What problem can you see with this approach in eukaryotes?

Question

Biology

Summer Lambert

30 March, 13:25

In prokaryotes, a search for genes in a DNA sequence involves scanning the DNA sequence for long open reading frames (that is, reading frames uninterrupted by stop codons). What problem can you see with this approach in eukaryotes?

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Avila · Answer 1

DNA in eukaryotes have introns which are the non-coding sequences and are spliced out of primary transcript. They are not present in mature mRNA.

Explanation:

The reading frame of 50 or more nucleotides without any termination codon in between is called an open reading frame. The long open reading frames mostly represent protein-coding genes.

Hence, long open reading frames are searched for in order to find the genes. The presence of introns in eukaryotic DNA does not allow the application of this approach to find genes in eukaryotes.

The post-transcriptional modification of the primary transcript removes the introns. Hence, a mature mRNA does not have introns. Therefore, introns do not contain open reading frames.