TY  - JOUR
A1  - Li, Yang I.
A1  - Sanchez-Pulido, Luis
A1  - Haerty, Wilfried
A1  - Ponting, Chris P.
T1  - RBFOX and PTBP1 proteins regulate the alternative splicing of micro-exons in human brain transcripts
Y1  - 2015/01/01 
JF  - Genome Research 
JO  - Genome Research 
SP  - 1 
EP  - 13 
DO  - 10.1101/gr.181990.114 
VL  - 25 
IS  - 1 
UR  - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/25/1/1.abstract 
N2  - Ninety-four percent of mammalian protein-coding exons exceed 51 nucleotides (nt) in length. The paucity of micro-exons (≤ 51 nt) suggests that their recognition and correct processing by the splicing machinery present greater challenges than for longer exons. Yet, because thousands of human genes harbor processed micro-exons, specialized mechanisms may be in place to promote their splicing. Here, we survey deep genomic data sets to define 13,085 micro-exons and to study their splicing mechanisms and molecular functions. More than 60% of annotated human micro-exons exhibit a high level of sequence conservation, an indicator of functionality. While most human micro-exons require splicing-enhancing genomic features to be processed, the splicing of hundreds of micro-exons is enhanced by the adjacent binding of splice factors in the introns of pre-messenger RNAs. Notably, splicing of a significant number of micro-exons was found to be facilitated by the binding of RBFOX proteins, which promote their inclusion in the brain, muscle, and heart. Our analyses suggest that accurate regulation of micro-exon inclusion by RBFOX proteins and PTBP1 plays an important role in the maintenance of tissue-specific protein–protein interactions. 
ER  -