title: Low rates of silent substitution in nuclear genes of two distantly related Scrophulariaceae (Antirrhinum and Verbascum).
abstract: Low levels of genetic diversity and divergence at nuclear loci have previously been observed for cycloidea and fil1-like genes within and between several Antirrhinum species, and divergence at these loci is also low between species in genera at different levels of relatedness in the former family Scrophulariaceae (Digitalis and Verbascum). The low divergence values are surprising, because (based on the sequences of chloroplast loci) the Scrophulariaceae are thought to be polyphyletic, with two anciently diverged clades, and the species we compared belonged to the two different clades. Here, we extend our studies of sequence divergence to more nuclear genes: fil2, far, globosa, and ADH: Detailed studies revealed that in Antirrhinum these genes belong to gene families. Low levels of divergence between Antirrhinum and Verbascum were observed for four of the loci studied, fil2-1, fil2-2, far-L, and globosa, similar to our previous observations. We discuss hypotheses to explain these low synonymous divergence values. For Adh, no cases of very similar sequences were found, but, rather, our sequences from the three different genera (Antirrhinum, Digitalis, and Verbascum) were all very diverged. Repeated gene duplication and loss of elements in the Adh gene family is likely in these lineages, making it impossible to determine orthology of the Adh genes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Charlesworth
mesh_terms: D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; C120848:FAR protein, Antirrhinum majus; C088005:FIL2 protein, Antirrhinum majus; C102172:GLOBOSA protein, plant; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors