Comparative genomics reveals birth and death of fragile regions in mammalian evolution.
BACKGROUND
An important question in genome evolution is whether there exist fragile regions (rearrangement hotspots) where chromosomal rearrangements are happening over and over again. Although nearly all recent studies supported the existence of fragile regions in mammalian genomes, the most comprehensive phylogenomic study of mammals raised some doubts about their existence.


RESULTS
Here we demonstrate that fragile regions are subject to a birth and death process, implying that fragility has a limited evolutionary lifespan.


CONCLUSIONS
This finding implies that fragile regions migrate to different locations in different mammals, explaining why there exist only a few chromosomal breakpoints shared between different lineages. The birth and death of fragile regions as a phenomenon reinforces the hypothesis that rearrangements are promoted by matching segmental duplications and suggests putative locations of the currently active fragile regions in the human genome.
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of South Carolina, 301 Main St, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. maxal@cse.sc.edu
Max A
MA
Alekseyev
Pavel A
PA
Pevzner
D000818:Animals; D056905:Chromosome Breakpoints; D043283:Chromosome Fragile Sites; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D015894:Genome, Human; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic