title: How strong is the mutagenicity of recombination in mammals?
abstract: It is commonly believed that a high recombination rate such as that in a pseudoautosomal region (PAR) greatly increases the mutation rate because a 170-fold increase was estimated for the mouse PAR region. However, sequencing PAR and non-PAR introns of the Fxy gene in four Mus taxa, we found an increase of only twofold to fivefold. Furthermore, analyses of sequence data from human and orangutan PAR and X-linked regions and from autosomal regions showed a weak effect of recombination on mutation rate (a slope of less than 0.2% per cM/Mb), although a much stronger effect on GC content (1% to 2% per cM/Mb). Because typical recombination rates in mammals are much lower than those in PARs, the mutagenicity of recombination is weak or, at best, moderate, although its effect on GC% is much stronger. In addition, contrary to a previous study, we found no Fxy duplicate in Mus spretus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Shiao-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Wen-Hsiung
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D041321:Chromosomes, Human, X / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008868:Microtubule Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
chemical_list: C407989:JTB protein, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D008868:Microtubule Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C109052:MID1 protein, human; C109037:Mid1 protein, mouse; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases