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Reassessing the Exon-Foldon correspondence using Frustration Analysis

Protein folding and evolution are intimately linked phenomena. Here, we revisit the concept of exons as potential protein folding modules across 38 abundant and conserved protein families. Taking advantage of genomic exon-intron organization and extensive protein sequence data, we explore exon boundary conservation and assess their foldon-like behavior using energy landscape theoretic measurements. We found deviations in exon size distribution from exponential decay indicating selection in evolution. We describe that there is a pronounced independent foldability of segments corresponding to conserved exons, supporting the exon-foldon correspondence. We further develop a systematic partitioning of protein domains using exon boundary hot spots, unveiling minimal common exons consisting of uninterrupted alpha and/or beta elements for the majority but not all of the studied families.