Gene conversion drives GC content evolution in mammalian histones.
To examine the evolutionary influence of gene conversion on DNA base composition, I analysed an exhaustive dataset of histone paralogous genes from human and mouse. I show that those gene copies that belong to subfamilies of very similar sequences (presumably undergoing gene conversion) have a higher GC content than unique gene copies (presumably not undergoing gene conversion). Thus, it seems that gene conversion is a biased process that tends to increase the DNA GC content, a conclusion that has implications for the evolution of isochores in vertebrates.
Galtier
Nicolas
N
CNRS UMR 5000-Génome, Populations, Interactions, Université Montpellier 2-CC63, Place E. Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier, France. galtier@univ-montp2.fr
D000818:Animals; D003596:Cytosine / Q000737:chemistry*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020862:GC Rich Sequence; D005785:Gene Conversion; D006147:Guanine / Q000737:chemistry*; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice
D006657:Histones; D006147:Guanine; D003596:Cytosine