Origin and evolution of new exons in the rodent zinc fingerprotein 39 gene  

作　　者：PENG Lixin ZHENG Hongkun LI Xin YANG Shuang CHEN Hong WANG Wen 

机构地区：[1]College of Animal Science and Technology,Northwest Sci-Tech Uni-versity of Agriculture and Forestry,Yangling 712100,China [2]CAS-Max Planck Junior Scientist Group,Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution,Kunming Institute of Zoology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650223,China [3]Beijing Institute of Genomics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 101300,China [4]Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100039 China [5]Institute of Cellular and Molecular Biology,Xuzhou Normal Univer-sity,Xuzhou 221116,China

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2005年第11期1126-1130,共5页

基　　金：the program of the CAS-Max Planck Junior Scientist Group,the keyproject of the CAs(Grant No.KSCx2-SW-121); the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.30325016&30430400).

摘　　要：The origin of new structures and functions is an important process in evolution. In the past decades, we have obtained some preliminary knowledge of the origin and evo- lution of new genes. However, as the basic unit of genes, the origin and evolution of exons remain unclear. Because young exons retain the footprints of origination, they can be good materials for studying origin and evolution of new exons. In this paper, we report two young exons in a zinc finger protein gene of rodents. Since they are unique sequences in mouse and rat genome and no homologous sequences were found in the orthologous genes of human and pig, the young exons might originate after the divergence of primates and rodents through exonization of intronic sequences. Strong positive selection was detected in the new exons between mouse and rat, suggesting that these exons have undergone significant functional divergence after the separation of the two species. On the other hand, population genetics data of mouse dem- onstrate that the new exons have been subject to functional constraint, indicating an important function of the new exons in mouse. Functional analyses suggest that these new exons encode a nuclear localization signal peptide, which may me- diate new ways of nuclear protein transport. To our knowl- edge, this is the first example of the origin and evolution of young exons.The origin of new structures and functions is an important process in evolution. In the past decades, we have obtained some preliminary knowledge of the origin and evo- lution of new genes. However, as the basic unit of genes, the origin and evolution of exons remain unclear. Because young exons retain the footprints of origination, they can be good materials for studying origin and evolution of new exons. In this paper, we report two young exons in a zinc finger protein gene of rodents. Since they are unique sequences in mouse and rat genome and no homologous sequences were found in the orthologous genes of human and pig, the young exons might originate after the divergence of primates and rodents through exonization of intronic sequences. Strong positive selection was detected in the new exons between mouse and rat, suggesting that these exons have undergone significant functional divergence after the separation of the two species. On the other hand, population genetics data of mouse dem- onstrate that the new exons have been subject to functional constraint, indicating an important function of the new exons in mouse. Functional analyses suggest that these new exons encode a nuclear localization signal peptide, which may me- diate new ways of nuclear protein transport. To our knowl- edge, this is the first example of the origin and evolution of young exons.

关 键 词：核苷酸序列 啮齿动物 动物起源 动物进化 蛋白质因子 

分 类 号：Q755[生物学—分子生物学]