2002 Volume 78 Issue 6 Pages 161-166
In genomes of higher eukaryotes, the numbers of clusters of 10 or more thymine nucleotides are much larger than what are expected for random combinations. The T bases in clusters occupy increasing percentages of the genomes with increasing the genome size, reaching 0.7% in human. The frequencies of these clusters in introns and intergenic regions are higher than that in exons, although the average lengths of clusters are similar in the three regions. Possible functions of T clusters for stabilizing chromatin and chromosome structures are discussed.
