title: An ancestral amplification of DNA in primates.
abstract: Newly evolved, tandemly arrayed, highly repeated DNAs from three primates were compared using Markov-chain and random-simulation approaches. Markov-chain calculations suggested that the repeated DNA sequences derived from the amplification of a progenitor sequence some 55 million years ago. Divergence of the products of this ancestral amplification could have created a library of related DNA sequences from which newly evolved repeated DNA was drawn - by recent amplifications of library members. The ancestral DNA amplification may have provided the genetic flexibility for creating the primate order; more recent amplifications in old-world primates probably led to the present subfamilies. The random-simulation approach verified the idea that repeated DNA evolves nonrandomly. A variable region was identified within the sequence.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002521:Cercopithecus / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004261:DNA Replication; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D010215:Papio / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004247:DNA