Overlapping genes in E. coli EDL933 (EHEC) - Phylostratigraphy of alternative reading frames and functional analysis of the candidate gene asa

In the last years, more and more novel bacterial small genes were discovered in intergenic regions. However, genes in alternative open reading frames overlapping to annotated genes are usually excluded by genome annotation programs. In this thesis, 2,180 novel EHEC ORFs overlapping to annotated mother genes were analyzed. Most overlapping ORFs are completely embedded in the mother gene, taxonomically restricted and structurally similar to small proteins discovered in previous studies. They emerge by gradual or discontinuous evolution. One candidate gene, asa, was experimentally characterized.