title: The melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MC1-R) gene as a tool in evolutionary studies of artiodactyles.
abstract: The complete coding region of the melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MC1-R) gene was characterized in species belonging to the two families Bovidae and Cervidae; cattle (Bos taurus), sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus), muskox (Ovibos moschatus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), moose (Alces alces), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). This well conserved gene is a central regulator of mammalian coat colour. Examination of the interspecies variability revealed a 5.3-6.8% divergence between the Cervidae and Bovidae families, whereas the divergence within the families were 1.0-3.1% and 1.2-4.6%, respectively. Complete identity was found when two subspecies of reindeer, Eurasian tundra reindeer (R.t. tarandus) and Svalbard reindeer (R.t. platvrhynehus), were analyzed. An rooted phylogenetic tree based on Bovidae and Cervidae MC1-R DNA sequences was in complete agreement with current taxonomy, and was supported by bootstrapping analysis. Due to different frequencies of silent vs. replacement mutations, the amino acid based phylogenetic tree contains several dissimilarities when compared to the DNA based phylogenetic tree.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Agricultural University of Norway, As, Norway. helge.klungland@inf.nlh.no
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Klungland
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Røed
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nesbø
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Jakobsen
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Våge
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001188:Artiodactyla / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015415:Biomarkers; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics; D003670:Deer / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics; D006200:Hair Color / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010802:Phylogeny; D011979:Receptors, Pituitary Hormone / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017385:Sequence Homology; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D011979:Receptors, Pituitary Hormone; C029446:MSH receptor