A screen for fast evolving genes from Drosophila
AUTOR(ES)
Schmid, Karl J.
FONTE
The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
RESUMO
In an attempt to quantify the rates of protein sequence divergence in Drosophila, we have devised a screen to differentiate between slow and fast evolving genes. We find that over one-third of randomly drawn cDNAs from a Drosophila melanogaster library do not cross-hybridize with Drosophila virilis DNA, indicating that they evolve with a very high rate. To determine the evolutionary characteristics of such protein sequences, we sequenced their homologs from a more closely related species (Drosophila yakuba). The amino acid substitution rates among these cDNAs are among the fastest known and several are only about 2-fold lower than the corresponding values for silent substitutions. An analysis of within-species polymorphisms for one of these sequences reveals an exceptionally high number of polymorphic amino acid positions, indicating that the protein is not under strong negative selection. We conclude that the Drosophila genome harbors a substantial proportion of genes with a very high divergence rate.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=23261Documentos Relacionados
- A directed screen for genes involved in Drosophila blood cell activation
- Identification of genes with fast-evolving regions in microbial genomes
- A functional genomic screen for cardiogenic genes using RNA interference in developing Drosophila embryos
- A Screen for Genes That Function Downstream of Ras1 during Drosophila Eye Development
- Evolving protein functional diversity in new genes of Drosophila