Are UTRs parts of exons ?

[kala934]

I must first apologize for resorting to this forum for a seamingly trivial biology question, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer and I believe this is relevant to all.

Are UTRs considered parts of exons?

I am amazed as to how divided opinions are, including in literature. Here I am looking more for a generally accepted definition, so I don't have to define exons every time I speak to someone.

I am not looking for an answer that just sounds reasonable, but one based on accepted convention.

Thanks

[lmf_bill]

yes, UTR, especial 3UTR has different feature from other exons. I think it depends on your focus.

[steven]

Of course, UTRs ARE parts of exons. Usually of the first and the terminal exons for the 5' and 3' UTRs respectively, but not only. And i am referring to exons as the biological objects, defined as the parts of the primary transcript molecule that are not spliced out (introns).
Now it is frequent in some fields (for instance, in gene finding) to consider that exon=conding regions, but this is wrong.
Download an annotation file from the UCSC table browsers and look carefully at the positions of the "exon" and "CDS" features for instance, you will see.