Effects of gene expression on molecular evolution in Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis lyrata

We analyzed the complete genome sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana and sequence data from 83 genes in the outcrossing A. lyrata, to better understand the role of gene expression on the strength of natural selection on synonymous and replacement sites in Arabidopsis. From data on tRNA gene abundance, w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular biology and evolution 2004-09, Vol.21 (9), p.1719-1726
Main Authors: Wright, Stephen I, Yau, C B Kenneth, Looseley, Mark, Meyers, Blake C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arabidopsis - classification
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis lyrata
Arabidopsis thaliana
Codon - genetics
Evolution, Molecular
Gene Expression
Genes, Plant
Genome, Plant
Protein Biosynthesis
RNA, Plant - genetics
RNA, Transfer - genetics
Selection, Genetic
Species Specificity
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Summary:We analyzed the complete genome sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana and sequence data from 83 genes in the outcrossing A. lyrata, to better understand the role of gene expression on the strength of natural selection on synonymous and replacement sites in Arabidopsis. From data on tRNA gene abundance, we find a good concordance between codon preferences and the relative abundance of isoaccepting tRNAs in the complete A. thaliana genome, consistent with models of translational selection. Both EST-based and new quantitative measures of gene expression (MPSS) suggest that codon preferences derived from information on tRNA abundance are more strongly associated with gene expression than those obtained from multivariate analysis, which provides further support for the hypothesis that codon bias in Arabidopsis is under selection mediated by tRNA abundance. Consistent with previous results, analysis of protein evolution reveals a significant correlation between gene expression level and amino acid substitution rate. Analysis by MPSS estimates of gene expression suggests that this effect is primarily the result of a correlation between the number of tissues in which a gene is expressed and the rate of amino acid substitution, which indicates that the degree of tissue specialization may be an important determinant of the rate of protein evolution in Arabidopsis.
ISSN:0737-4038
1537-1719
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msh191