Alternative Polyadenylation in the Human Genome: Evolution

Abstract

Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) polyadenylation is an essential step for the maturation of most eukaryotic mRNAs, and is tightly coupled with termination of transcription. Over half of all human genes have alternative polyadenylation sites, resulting in transcript variants with different 3′ UTR (untranslated region) sequences and, in some cases, protein‐coding regions. Comparative genomic studies are beginning to elucidate the phylogenetics of cis ‐elements and protein factors involved in the regulation of mRNA polyadenylation, and shed light on the evolution of alternative polyadenylation.