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Two families of non-LTR retrotransposons, Syrinx and Daphne, from the Darwinulid ostracod, Darwinula stevensoni.

Two novel families of non-LTR retrotransposons, named Syrinx and Daphne, were cloned and characterized in a putative ancient asexual ostracod Darwinula stevensoni. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that Daphne is the founding member of a novel clade of non-LTR retroelements, which also contains retrotransposon families from the sea urchin and the silkworm and forms a sister clade to L2-like elements. The Syrinx family of non-LTR retrotransposons exhibits evidence of relatively recent activity, manifested in high levels of sequence similarity between individual copies and a three- to ten-fold excess of synonymous substitutions, which is indicative of purifying selection. The Daphne family may have very few copies with intact open reading frames, and exhibits neutral within-family ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous substitutions. It can additionally be characterized by formation of inverted truncated head-to-head structures. All of these features make recent activity less likely than in the Syrinx family. Our results are discussed in light of the evolutionary consequences of long-term asexuality in general and in D. stevensoni in particular.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Parallel evolution of drug resistance in HIV: failure of nonsynonymous/synonymous substitution rate ratio to detect selection.

Parallel or convergent evolution at the molecular level has been difficult to demonstrate especially when rigorous statistical criteria are applied. We present sequence data from the protease gene from eight patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). These patients have been on multiple drug therapies for at least 2 years. We present sequence data from two timepoints: time zero--the initiation of drug therapy--and a subsequent timepoint between 59 and 104 weeks after the initiation of drug therapy. In addition to the sequence data, we present viral load data from both initial and final timepoints. Our phylogenetic analyses indicate significant evolution of virus from initial to final time points, even in three of eight patients who show low viral loads. Of the five patients who escaped drug therapy, identical amino acid replacements were seen in all five patients at two different codon positions, an indication of parallel evolution. We also measured genetic diversity for these patients and found no correlation between genetic diversity and viral load. Finally, we calculated the nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rates and showed that the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitution compared to the value of one may be a poor indicator of natural selection.

Anti-HIV Agents↗

Ancestral polymorphism of Mhc class II genes in mice: implications for balancing selection and the mammalian molecular clock.

To investigate the evolutionary dynamics at Mhc class II DR genes of mice (genus Mus), we sequenced the peptide binding regions (PBRs) of 41 DRB (= E beta) genes and eight DRA (= E alpha) genes from 15 strains representing eight species. As expected trees of these PBR sequences imply extensive maintenance of ancestral DRB alleles across species. We use a coalescent simulation model to show that the number of interspecific coalescent events (c) observed on these trees was higher than the number expected for neutral genealogies and similar sample sizes and is more consistent with balancing selection that with neutrality. Patterns of ancestral polymorphism in mouse DRB alleles were also used to examine the tempo of synonymous substitution in the PBR of mouse class II genes. Both absolute and relative rate tests on DRA and DRB genes imply increased substitution rates at two- and fourfold degenerate sites of mice and rats relative to primates, and decreased rates for the DRB genes of primates relative to ungulate and carnivore relatives. Thus rates of synonymous substitution at Mhc DR genes in mammals appear to be subject to generation time effects in ways similar to those found at other mammalian genes.

Alleles↗

Extensive polymorphisms of LILRB1 (ILT2, LIR1) and their association with HLA-DRB1 shared epitope negative rheumatoid arthritis.

Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily B member 1 (LILRB1/LIR1/ILT2) is an inhibitory receptor broadly expressed on leukocytes and recognizes HLA-class I and human cytomegalovirus UL18. LILRB1 is encoded within the leukocyte receptor complex on 19q13.4, previously implicated to be a susceptibility region to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this study, we screened for polymorphisms of LILRB1 and examined their association with SLE and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the 5' portion of LILRB1, three haplotypes containing four non-synonymous substitutions within the ligand-binding domains and two single nucleotide polymorphisms within the promoter region were identified and designated as PE01-03. In the 3' portion, two haplotypes (CY01, 02) containing a non-synonymous substitution of the cytoplasmic region were identified. CY01 and 02 did not co-segregate with PE01-03. Significant association with susceptibility to SLE or RA was not observed; however, among the subjects not carrying RA-associated HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE), LILRB1.PE01/01 diplotype was significantly associated with RA (odds ratio 2.05, P = 0.019 and Pc = 0.038). Gross difference was not observed in the crystal structures, thermostabilities and binding affinities to HLA-class I ligands among LILRB1.PE01-03 haplotype products; however, surface expression of LILRB1 was significantly decreased in lymphocytes and monocytes from the carriers of PE01 haplotype. These findings demonstrated that LILRB1 is highly polymorphic and is associated with susceptibility to RA in HLA-DRB1 SE negative subjects, possibly by insufficient inhibitory signaling in leukocytes. In addition, these observations suggested that the polymorphisms of LILR family members may be substantially involved in the diversity of human immune responses.

Adult↗

New methods for estimating the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions.

New methods for estimating the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions per site were developed. The methods are unweighted pathway methods based on Kimura's two-parameter model. Computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the accuracies of the new methods, Nei and Gojobori's (NG) method, Miyata and Yasunaga's (MY) method, Li, Wu, and Luo's (LWL) method, and Pamilo, Bianchi, and Li's (PBL) method. The following results were obtained: (1) The NG, MY, and LWL methods give overestimates of the number of synonymous substitutions and underestimates of the number of nonsynonymous substitutions. The major cause for the biased estimation is that these three methods underestimate the number of synonymous sites and overestimate the number of nonsynonymous sites. (2) The PBL method gives better estimates of the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions than those obtained by the NG, MY, and LWL methods. (3) The new methods also give better estimates of the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions than those obtained by the NG, MY, and LWL methods. In addition, estimates of the numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous sites obtained by the new methods are reasonably accurate. (4) In some cases, the new methods and the PBL method give biased estimates of substitution numbers. However, from the number of nucleotide substitutions at the third position of codons, we can examine whether estimates obtained by the new methods are good or not, whereas we cannot make an examination of estimates obtained by the PBL method. (5) When there are strong transition/transversion and nucleotide-frequency biases like mitochondrial genes, all of the above methods give biased estimates of substitution numbers. In such cases, Kondo et al.'s method is recommended to be used for estimating the number of synonymous substitutions, although their method cannot estimate the number of nonsynonymous substitutions and is time-consuming. These results, particularly result (1), call for reexaminations of some genes. This is because evolutionary pictures of genes have often been discussed on the basis of results obtained by the NG, MY, and LWL methods, which are favorable for the neutral theory of molecular evolution.

Animals↗

Contrasting rates of nucleotide substitution in the X-linked and Y-linked zinc finger genes.

We have sequenced the entire exon (approximately 1.180 bp) encoding the zinc finger domain of the X-linked and Y-linked zinc finger genes (ZFX and ZFY, respectively) in the orangutan, the baboon, the squirrel monkey, and the rat; a total of 9,442 bp were sequenced. The ratio of the rates of synonymous substitution in the ZFY and ZFX genes is estimated to be 2.1 in primates. This is close to the ratio of 2.3 estimated from primate ZFY and ZFX intron sequences and supports the view that the male-to-female ratio of mutation rate in humans in considerably higher than 1 but not extremely large. The ratio of synonymous substitution rates in ZFY and ZFX is estimated to be 1.3 in the rat lineage but 4.2 in the mouse lineage. The former is close to the estimate (1.4) from introns. The much higher ratio in the mouse lineage (not statistically significant) might have arisen from relaxation of selective constraints. The synonymous divergence between mouse and rat ZFX is considerably lower than that between mouse and rat autosomal genes, agreeing with previous observations and providing some evidence for stronger selective constraints on synonymous changes in X-linked genes than in autosomal genes. At the protein level ZFX has been highly conserved in all placental mammals studied while ZFY has been well conserved in primates and foxes but has evolved rapidly in mice and rats, possibly due to relaxation of functional constraints as a result of the development of X-inactivation of ZFX in rodents. The long persistence of the ZFY-ZFX gene pair in mammals provides some insight into the process of degeneration of Y-linked genes.

Animals↗

The correlation between synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions in Drosophila: mutation, selection or relaxed constraints?

Codon usage bias, the preferential use of particular codons within each codon family, is characteristic of synonymous base composition in many species, including Drosophila, yeast, and many bacteria. Preferential usage of particular codons in these species is maintained by natural selection acting largely at the level of translation. In Drosophila, as in bacteria, the rate of synonymous substitution per site is negatively correlated with the degree of codon usage bias, indicating stronger selection on codon usage in genes with high codon bias than in genes with low codon bias. Surprisingly, in these organisms, as well as in mammals, the rate of synonymous substitution is also positively correlated with the rate of nonsynonymous substitution. To investigate this correlation, we carried out a phylogenetic analysis of substitutions in 22 genes between two species of Drosophila, Drosophila pseudoobscura and D. subobscura, in codons that differ by one replacement and one synonymous change. We provide evidence for a relative excess of double substitutions in the same species lineage that cannot be explained by the simultaneous mutation of two adjacent bases. The synonymous changes in these codons also cannot be explained by a shift to a more preferred codon following a replacement substitution. We, therefore, interpret the excess of double codon substitutions within a lineage as being the result of relaxed constraints on both kinds of substitutions in particular codons.

Animals↗

Evolutionary dynamics of the DNA-binding domains in putative R2R3-MYB genes identified from rice subspecies indica and japonica genomes.

The molecular evolution of the R2R3-MYB gene family is of great interest because it is one of the most important transcription factor gene families in the plant kingdom. Comparative analyses of a gene family may reveal important adaptive changes at the protein level and thereby provide insights that relate structure to function. We have performed a range of comparative and bioinformatics analyses on R2R3-MYB genes identified from the rice (Oryza sativa subsp. japonica and indica) and Arabidopsis genome sequences. The study provides an initial framework to investigate how different evolutionary lineages in a gene family evolve new functions. Our results reveal a remarkable excess of non-synonymous substitutions, an indication of adaptive selection on protein structure that occurred during the evolution of both helix1 and helix2 of rice R2R3-MYB DNA-binding domains. These flexible alpha-helix regions associated with high frequencies of excess non-synonymous substitutions may play critical roles in the characteristic packing of R2R3-MYB DNA-binding domains and thereby modify the protein-DNA interaction process resulting in the recognition of novel DNA-binding sites. Furthermore, a co-evolutionary pattern is found between the second alpha-helix of the R2 domain and the second alpha-helix of the R3 domain by examining all the possible alpha-helix pairings in both the R2 and R3 domains. This points to the functional importance of pairing interactions between related secondary structures.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Observation of positive selection within hypervariable regions of a newly identified DNA virus (SEN virus)(1).

To elucidate the evolution of SEN virus (SEN-V), serial sequences of chronically SEN-V-infected patients were analyzed. In the hypervariable regions, non-synonymous substitutions significantly predominated. This could be attributed to positive selection in evading immune surveillance of the hosts and to establish a persistent infection. On the basis of the sequences in the two open reading frames of SEN-V DNA, the rate of synonymous substitutions was 7.32 x 10(-4) per site per year. Since this rate is close to RNA viruses and higher than other DNA viruses, the SEN-V might be replicated by machinery with poor or no proofreading function.

Chronic Disease↗

Phylogeny and intraspecific variability of holoparasitic Orobanche (Orobanchaceae) inferred from plastid rbcL sequences.

The rbcL sequences of 106 specimens representing 28 species of the four recognized sections of Orobanche were analyzed and compared. Most sequences represent pseudogenes with premature stop codons. This study confirms that the American lineage (sects. Gymnocaulis and Myzorrhiza) contains potentially functional rbcL-copies with intact open reading frames and low rates of non-synonymous substitutions. For the first time, this is also shown for a member of the Eurasian lineage, O. coerulescens of sect. Orobanche, while all other investigated species of sects. Orobanche and Trionychon contain pseudogenes with distorted reading frames and significantly higher rates of non-synonymous substitutions. Phylogenetic analyses of the rbcL sequences give equivocal results concerning the monophyly of Orobanche, and the American lineage might be more closely related to Boschniakia and Cistanche than to the other sections of Orobanche. Additionally, species of sect. Trionychon phylogenetically nest in sect. Orobanche. This is in concordance with results from other plastid markers (rps2 and matK), but in disagreement with other molecular (nuclear ITS), morphological, and karyological data. This might indicate that the ancestor of sect. Trionychon has captured the plastid genome, or parts of it, of a member of sect. Orobanche. Apart from the phylogenetically problematic position of sect. Trionychon, the phylogenetic relationships within sect. Orobanche are similar to those inferred from nuclear ITS data and are close to the traditional groupings traditionally recognized based on morphology. The intraspecific variation of rbcL is low and is neither correlated with intraspecific morphological variability nor with host range. Ancestral character reconstruction using parsimony suggests that the ancestor of O. sect. Orobanche had a narrow host range.

Base Sequence↗

Mhc-DRB genes evolution in lemurs.

Partial exon 2 sequences (202 bp) of the lemur Mhc-DRB genes were sequenced. A total of 137 novel sequences were detected in 66 lemurs, representing four out of the five extant families. Trans-species polymorphisms and even identical sequences were observed not only among genera but also among families. Based on the time-scale of lemur evolution, these findings suggest that some identical sequences have been maintained for more than 40 million years. This is in contrast to the evolutionary mode of simian DRB genes, where such identical sequences have been retained for at most several million years. To explore the reasons behind these unexpected findings, the degree of recombination and the synonymous substitution rate in lemurs and simians were examined. We found that (1) little difference existed in the extent of recombination, (2) frequent recombination occurred within the alpha-helix as well as between the beta-pleated sheet and the alpha-helix, and (3) the synonymous substitution rate was significantly reduced in lemur lineages. Upon phylogenetic analysis, lemur DRB genes were clustered by themselves and separated from the other primate DRB genes (simians and non-Malagasy prosimians). This result suggests that the DRB variations in extant lemur populations have been generated after the divergence of the lemurs from the remaining primates. This mode of substitution accumulation is also supported by a pattern of mismatch distribution among lemur DRB genes. These observations correspond with the postulation that a severe bottleneck occurred when the ancestors of lemurs settled into Madagascar from the African continent.

Amino Acid Motifs↗

Temperature adaptation of synonymous codon usage in different functional categories of genes: a comparative study between homologous genes of Methanococcus jannaschii and Methanococcus maripaludis.

Synonymous codon usage of homologous sequences between Methanococcus jannaschii and Methanococcus maripaludis have been analyzed in three broad functional categories of genes namely: (i) information storage and processing; (ii) metabolism; and (iii) cellular processes and signaling. Average values of synonymous nucleotide substitutions per synonymous site are significantly lower for information processing genes compared to either metabolic or cellular processing genes. These results suggests that synonymous codon usage has been subject to greater constraint in the information storage and processing group of genes compared to other functional categories of genes. For metabolic and cellular processing genes, correspondence analysis based on relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values separates the genes along the first major axes according to the genome type; while in the information processing group, genes are separated along the second major axes according to the genome type. Further study on synonymous substitution rate for information processing genes shows a stronger selective constraint on synonymous codon usage of six amino acids, G,A,R,P,Y,F. Randomization of the original transcript of M. jannaschii for information processing genes suggests that variation in selective constraint between synonymous codon usage is related to the potential formation of mRNA secondary structures which contribute to the folding stability.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Characterisation of streptomycin resistance determinants in Danish isolates of Salmonella Typhimurium.

Fifty six Danish streptomycin (Sm) resistant isolates of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium from pigs (n=34), calves (n=3) and humans (n=19) were characterised with respect to co-resistances (14 drugs), transferability of Sm-resistance by conjugation, genetic determinants encoding Sm-resistance and diversity with respect to localisation of genes in the genome and DNA-sequences. Forty-six strains carried resistance(s) other than Sm-resistance. Nineteen different co-resistance patterns were observed and tetracycline was the most commonly observed resistance in these patterns. In 22 of the strains, Sm-resistance was transferred by conjugation. Eleven strains contained the gene aadA only, six strains contained aadA+strA+strB, and 35 strains contained strA+strB. Partial sequences of aadA were obtained from four strains. Three strains showed identical sequences to a published aadA sequence from the transposon Tn7, and in one strain the sequence showed one synonymous substitution compared to this sequence. Partial sequences were obtained of strA and strB in seven strains. The sequence of strB was identical to the published sequence of the plasmid RSF1010 in all strains. All seven sequences of strA were identical and differed from the sequence of strA in RSF1010 by two non-synonymous substitutions.

Animals↗

Molecular evolution of the Rh3 gene in Drosophila.

Previous investigations into the evolution of the Drosophila opsin gene family are extended by inter- and intraspecific DNA sequence comparisons of the Rh3 locus in the melanogaster subgroup and D. pseudoobscura. Two separate statistical tests of the neutral-mutation hypothesis suggest that random genetic drift is responsible for virtually all of the observed amino acid replacement substitutions within the melanogaster subgroup. Analyses incorporating the D. pseudoobscura sequences are enigmatic due to the accumulation of multiple substitutions, because the McDonald-Kreitman test is not applicable to species comparisons that approach mutational saturation. However, the data from D. pseudoobscura are not inconsistent with selective neutrality. The ratio of amino acid polymorphisms within species to fixed differences between species imply that there are approximately 31 possible neutral single-step amino-acid-replacement substitutions at this locus. Synonymous substitutions are unevenly distributed among the structural domains of the Rh3 gene. Patterns of synonymous polymorphism are analyzed with respect to GC content and codon bias, and are compared to other loci from the same species.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Signs of positive selection of somatic mutations in human cancers detected by EST sequence analysis.

BACKGROUND: Carcinogenesis typically involves multiple somatic mutations in caretaker (DNA repair) and gatekeeper (tumor suppressors and oncogenes) genes. Analysis of mutation spectra of the tumor suppressor that is most commonly mutated in human cancers, p53, unexpectedly suggested that somatic evolution of the p53 gene during tumorigenesis is dominated by positive selection for gain of function. This conclusion is supported by accumulating experimental evidence of evolution of new functions of p53 in tumors. These findings prompted a genome-wide analysis of possible positive selection during tumor evolution. METHODS: A comprehensive analysis of probable somatic mutations in the sequences of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) from malignant tumors and normal tissues was performed in order to access the prevalence of positive selection in cancer evolution. For each EST, the numbers of synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions were calculated. In order to identify genes with a signature of positive selection in cancers, these numbers were compared to: i) expected numbers and ii) the numbers for the respective genes in the ESTs from normal tissues. RESULTS: We identified 112 genes with a signature of positive selection in cancers, i.e., a significantly elevated ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous substitutions, in tumors as compared to 37 such genes in an approximately equal-sized EST collection from normal tissues. A substantial fraction of the tumor-specific positive-selection candidates have experimentally demonstrated or strongly predicted links to cancer. CONCLUSION: The results of EST analysis should be interpreted with extreme caution given the noise introduced by sequencing errors and undetected polymorphisms. Furthermore, an inherent limitation of EST analysis is that multiple mutations amenable to statistical analysis can be detected only in relatively highly expressed genes. Nevertheless, the present results suggest that positive selection might affect a substantial number of genes during tumorigenic somatic evolution.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Evolutionary changes of nucleotide sequences of papova viruses BKV and SV40: they are possibly hybrids.

Complete nucleotide sequences were compared between papova viruses BKV and SV40 and the degrees of sequence divergences were compared between structurally and/or functionally different segments or genes in details. It was shown that the rate of synonymous substitution is not only very high but also approximately uniform among different genes in these viruses as in eukaryotic genes examined to date. While all the non-coding regions including the intron showed marked sequence preservation which is in sharp contrasted with the case of eukaryotic genes where the large bulk of non-coding regions evolve at a rate as rapidly as that of synonymous substitution. It is remarkable that a long continuous stretch of sequence including the putative VPX gene and a 5' half of VP2 gene showed strong homology between BKV and SV40. A close examination of the pattern of base substitutions revealed that this unusual homology was derived by recombination between the two viruses during their evolution. On the basis of the pattern of base substitutions and the bias in code word utilization, we also showed that the putative VPX gene actually could code for a functional polypeptide. In papova viruses, the 3' terminal sequence of VP2/3 gene overlaps with the 5' terminal sequence of VPI gene. The pattern of base substitutions in the overlapping segment was examined in detail in comparison with those in the non-overlapping portions of VP2/3 and VP1 genes. It was shown that the evolutionary mode of the overlapping genes is in good agreement with our previous prediction.

BK Virus↗

Computing Ka and Ks with a consideration of unequal transitional substitutions.

BACKGROUND: Approximate methods for estimating nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rates (Ka and Ks) among protein-coding sequences have adopted different mutation (substitution) models. In the past two decades, several methods have been proposed but they have not considered unequal transitional substitutions (between the two purines, A and G, or the two pyrimidines, T and C) that become apparent when sequences data to be compared are vast and significantly diverged. RESULTS: We propose a new method (MYN), a modified version of the Yang-Nielsen algorithm (YN), for evolutionary analysis of protein-coding sequences in general. MYN adopts the Tamura-Nei Model that considers the difference among rates of transitional and transversional substitutions as well as factors in codon frequency bias. We evaluate the performance of MYN by comparing to other methods, especially to YN, and to show that MYN has minimal deviations when parameters vary within normal ranges defined by empirical data. CONCLUSION: Our comparative results deriving from consistency analysis, computer simulations and authentic datasets, indicate that ignoring unequal transitional rates may lead to serious biases and that MYN performs well in most of the tested cases. These results also suggest that acquisitions of reliable synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates primarily depend on less biased estimates of transition/transversion rate ratio.

Algorithms↗

Phylogenetic analysis of a human group B rotavirus WH-1 detected in China in 2002.

A human group B rotavirus strain WH-1 was detected in an adult sporadic case of diarrhea in Wuhan, China in 2002. In this study, the gene sequences of WH-1 were determined in order to examine the phylogenetic relatedness to other human group B rotaviruses found previously in China (ADRV, in 1982), India (CAL-1, in 1998), and Bangladesh (Bang373, in 2000), as well as animal viruses, and to estimate the mutation rate of group B rotavirus. VP7 (major outer capsid protein) gene of WH-1 showed extremely high sequence identity (98.6%) to ADRV and showed relatively high sequence identities to CAL-1 (92.5%) and Bang373 (92.4%). In contrast, identities to animal (bovine and murine) group B rotaviruses were considerably lower (61-64%). Other gene segments of WH-1 encoding VP2, VP4, VP6, NSP1-NSP3, and NSP5 also showed high sequence identities to ADRV genes (98-99%), which were generally higher than those to CAL-1 genes and Bang373 genes (90-95%). However, amino acid sequence identities between WH-1 and ADRV were almost the same (VP2, VP6, and NSP3), or lower (NSP2) than those between WH-1 and CAL-1 (or Bang373). Since rates of synonymous substitution and transition between WH-1 and ADRV were similar for all the segments analyzed, genetic evolution was considered to have occurred neutrally and at a similar speed in most of the RNA segments. Based on the sequence divergence between WH-1 and ADRV, the mutation rate in natural condition of human group B rotavirus was estimated as 7.9 x 10(-4) substitution/site per year. The frequency of synonymous substitution between ADRV and Bang373 was 5.7 times higher than that between ADRV and WH-1, suggesting that the group B rotaviruses of Indian-Bangladeshi lineage diverged from that of Chinese lineage several decades ago.

Adult↗