Drive-selection equilibrium: homopolymer evolution in the Drosophila gene mastermind

Interspecific sequence comparison of the highly repetitive Drosophila gene mastermind (mam) reveals extensive length variation in homopolymer domains. The length variation in homopolymers is due to nucleotide misalignment in the underlying triplet repeats, which can lead to slippage mutations during...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of molecular evolution 1994-06, Vol.38 (6), p.637-641
Main Authors: Newfeld, S.J, Tachida, H, Yedvobnick, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Drosophila - genetics
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster - genetics
Drosophila Proteins
Drosophila virilis
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
genes
Genes, Insect
Genes. Genome
Genetic Variation
Insect Hormones - genetics
length
mam gene
mastermind gene
Models, Genetic
Molecular and cellular biology
Molecular genetics
Mutation
natural selection
Nuclear Proteins - genetics
nucleotide sequences
Polymers
repetitive sequences
Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
Selection, Genetic
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Species Specificity
variation
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Summary:Interspecific sequence comparison of the highly repetitive Drosophila gene mastermind (mam) reveals extensive length variation in homopolymer domains. The length variation in homopolymers is due to nucleotide misalignment in the underlying triplet repeats, which can lead to slippage mutations during DNA replication or repair. In mam, the length variation in repetitive regions appears to be balanced by natural selection acting to maintain the distance between two highly conserved charge clusters. Here we report a statistical test of the null hypothesis that the similarity in the amino acid distance between the charge clusters of each species arose by chance. The results suggest that at mam there is a juxtaposition of length variability due to molecular drive and length conservation maintained by natural selection. The analysis of mam allows the extension of current theories of drive-selection interaction to encompass homopolymers. Our model of drive-selection equilibrium suggests that the physical flexibility, length variability, and abundance of homopolymer domains provide an important source of genetic variation for natural populations.
ISSN:0022-2844
1432-1432
DOI:10.1007/BF00175884