title: Divergence and heterogeneity of the histone gene repeating units in the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup.
abstract: The repeating units of the histone gene cluster containing the H1, H2A, H2B and H4 genes were amplified by PCR from the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup, i.e., D. yakuba, D. erecta, D. sechellia, D. mauritiana, D. teissieri and D. orena. The PCR products were cloned and their nucleotide sequences of about 4.6-4.8kbp were determined to elucidate the mechanism of molecular evolution of the histone gene family. The heterogeneity among the histone gene repeating units was 0.6% and 0.7% for D. yakuba and D. sechellia, respectively, indicating the same level of heterogeneity as in the H3 gene region of D. melanogaster. Divergence of the genes among species even in the most closely related ones was much greater than the heterogeneity among family members, indicating a concerted mode of evolution for the histone gene repeating units. Among the species in the D. melanogaster species subgroup, the histone gene regions as well as 3rd codon position of the coding region showed nearly the same GC contents. These results suggested that the previous conclusion on analysis of the H3 gene regions, the gene family evolution in a concerted fashion, holds true for the whole histone gene repeating unit.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Adaptive Evolution, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kakita
authors.forename: Tsunenori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Masami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emoto
authors.forename: Mariya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Miyo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takeguchi
authors.forename: Yuuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hosono
authors.forename: Nahoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kume
authors.forename: Toshikatsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozawa
authors.forename: Mayuko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Md Shaidul Islam
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bhuiyan
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D006657:Histones