Table 1 Contrasting features of housekeeping and hypervariable genes.

CDS length (bp) ^a

2624 (s.e. = 89)

1178 (s.e. = 73)

1931 (s.e. = 8)

Gene length (bp) ^a

3117 (s.e. = 87)

1493 (s.e. = 78)

2229 (s.e. = 8)

Total exon length (bp) ^a

1941 (s.e. = 52)

1169 (s.e. = 50)

1568 (s.e. 6)

Total intron length (bp) ^a

1173 (s.e. = 52)

323 (s.e. = 44)

660 (s.e. = 4)

Number of exons (pb) ^a

8 (s.e. = 0.31)

3 (s.e. = 0.24)

5 (s.e = 0.03)

Genes without introns

6% (p = 5E-16)

33% (p = 0.0007)

28%

Average number of transcription factor binding sites ^b

27 ± 1.2 (p < 0.01)

46 ± 1.8 (p < 0.0001)

30 ± 0.1

TATA-containing genes ^c

5% (p = 1.3E-6)

45% (p = 6.1E-15)

15%

Genes coding for unstable transcripts ^d

0% (n.a.)

8% (p = 9E-11)

1%

Shared among eukaryotes ^e

18% (p = 0.002)

7%

14%

Plant-specific ^e

11%

34% (p = 2E-10)

14%

Body methylation ^f

63% (p = 1.5E-35)

8% (p = 2E-10)

34%

Promoter methylation ^f

3%

3%

5%

Body methylation ^g

36% (p = 9.1E-21)

2% (p = 3.8E-8)

20%