title: Gene conversions in the growth hormone gene family of primates: stronger homogenizing effects in the Hominidae lineage.
abstract: In humans, the growth hormone/chorionic somatomammotropin gene family is composed of five highly similar genes. We characterized the gene conversions that occurred between the growth hormone genes of 11 primate species. We detected 48 conversions using GENECONV and others were only detected using phylogenetic analyses. Gene conversions were detected in all species analyzed, their average size (±standard deviation) is 197.8±230.4 nucleotides, the size of the conversions is correlated with sequence similarity and converted regions are significantly more GC-rich than non-converted regions. Gene conversions have a stronger homogenizing effect in Hominidae genes than in other primate species. They are also less frequent in conserved gene regions and towards functionally important genes. This suggests that the high degree of sequence similarity observed between the growth hormone genes of primate species is a consequence of frequent gene conversions in gene regions which are under little selective constraints.
authors.affiliation: Département de biologie et Centre de recherche avancée en génomique environnementale, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Petronella
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Drouin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D005785:Gene Conversion; D015894:Genome, Human; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D013006:Growth Hormone