F12F6.2 is a small CDS confirmed by an EST (CK587515) and an OST (OSTF144C1_1) that lies completely within the 3’ UTR of F12F6.3.
It is at the end of an operon on the opposite strand.
I can’t help feeling rather dubious about this despite the transcript evidence.
Could anyone do some lab work to confirm it?
Gary
I can understand your skepticism. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a gene that is completely overlapped by another on the opposite strand. In general what I’ve noticed is when elegans genes do overlap on opposite strants it i is restricted to the UTR regions of both and the overlaps do not span introns (it’s hard to have a good splice acceptor site on one strand also be good splice donner site on the other).
It looks like the one EST (EC012314) that defines the intron in F12F6.2 has been mis-assigned and should really be attached to F12F6.3 on the opposite strand. (hope I’m not missing something here). Without the intron it becomes a bit more believable F12F6.2 is a real gene. However there are two sage tags that support the intron. Could these possibly be placed on the other strand?
If this is just a single exon gene, then is it coding or non-coding? The short CDS is reasonably well conserved with short regions in several other, much larger proteins found in rat, human and a cyanobacteria, suggesting it is a protein coding gene. However, if I had to bet a week of your salary on it, I would say it is non-coding.