GC-biased gene conversion promotes the fixation of deleterious amino acid changes in primates.
GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC) is a recently discovered, recombination-associated segregation distortion, which influences GC-content dynamics in the mammalian genome. We scanned the primate proteome for examples of exon-specific, lineage-specific accelerated amino acid evolution. Here, we show that such episodes are frequently accompanied by an increase in GC-content, which extends to synonymous and intronic positions. This demonstrates that gBGC has substantially (negatively) impacted the evolutionary trajectory of human proteins by promoting the fixation of deleterious AT-->GC mutations.
Galtier
Nicolas
N
Université Montpellier 2, CNRS UMR 5554, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Place E. Bataillon, CC64, 34095 Montpellier, France. nicolas.galtier@univ-montp2.fr
Duret
Laurent
L
Glémin
Sylvain
S
Ranwez
Vincent
V
D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005785:Gene Conversion; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D011506:Proteins