title: Evolution of protein-coding genes in Drosophila.
abstract: Several contributing factors have been implicated in evolutionary rate heterogeneity among proteins, but their evolutionary mechanisms remain poorly characterized. The recently sequenced 12 Drosophila genomes provide a unique opportunity to shed light on these unresolved issues. Here, we focus on the role of natural selection in shaping evolutionary rates. We use the Drosophila genomic data to distinguish between factors that increase the strength of purifying selection on proteins and factors that affect the amount of positive selection experienced by proteins. We confirm the importance of translational selection in shaping protein evolution in Drosophila and show that factors such as tissue bias in expression, gene essentiality, intron number, and recombination rate also contribute to evolutionary rate variation among proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. aml69@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Larracuente
authors.forename: Timothy B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Sackton
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Nadia D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sturgill
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oliver
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics; D012641:Selection, Genetic
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins