Intron length increases oscillatory periods of gene expression in animal cells

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Abstract
Introns may affect gene expression by increasing the time required to transcribe the gene. One way for extended transcription times to affect the behavior of a gene expression program is through a negative feedback loop. Here, we show that a logically engineered negative feedback loop in animal cells produces expression pulses, which have a broad time distribution that increases with intron length. These results in combination with mathematical models provide insight into what may produce the intron-dependent pulse distributions. We conclude that the long production time required for large intron-containing genes is significant for the behavior of gene expression programs.