FIG 9.

Antisense RNA segments are more conserved at the sequence level than the sense RNAs. Comparisons of the species-level conservation between the sense and antisense RNAs belonging to the four RNA segment categories are shown in box plots. Statistical comparisons were performed with a Welch two-sample t test, and the resulting P values are indicated. In all cases, the antisense RNAs are more evolutionarily conserved than their sense RNA counterparts. However, this is linked to the sequence conservation of the protein-encoding genes on the sense strand.