title: Neuropeptide Y receptor gene y6: multiple deaths or resurrections?
abstract: The neuropeptide Y family of G-protein-coupled receptors consists of five cloned members in mammals. Four genes give rise to functional receptors in all mammals investigated. The y6 gene is a pseudogene in human and pig and is absent in rat, but generates a functional receptor in rabbit and mouse and probably in the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), a distant relative of the pig family. We report here that the guinea pig y6 gene has a highly distorted nucleotide sequence with multiple frame-shift mutations. One evolutionary scenario may suggest that y6 was inactivated before the divergence of the mammalian orders and subsequently resurrected in some lineages. However, the pseudogene mutations seem to be distinct in human, pig, and guinea pig, arguing for separate inactivation events. In either case, the y6 gene has a quite unusual evolutionary history with multiple independent deaths or resurrections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SE-75124, Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Starbäck
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wraith
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Larhammar
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016368:Frameshift Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011544:Pseudogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D017476:Receptors, Neuropeptide Y / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017421:Sequence Analysis
chemical_list: D017476:Receptors, Neuropeptide Y