title: Strong purifying selection against gene conversions in the trypsin genes of primates.
abstract: The trypsin gene families of primate species are composed of members who share a remarkable level of sequence similarity. Here, we investigated the gene conversions occurring within the trypsin gene family in five primate species. A total of 36 conversion events, with an average length (±standard deviation) of 1,526 ± 1,124 nucleotides, were detected using two methods. Such extensive gene conversions are likely both the cause and the consequence of the high sequence similarity between primate trypsin genes. In the trypsins encoded by these genes, both the overall amino acid sequences and critical amino acid residues are conserved. Therefore, the numerous long gene conversions we detected between trypsin genes did not alter any of their functionally important amino acid sites. This suggest that, in the trypsin genes of the five primate species studied here, strong purifying selection against gene conversions is occurring in regions containing functionally important residues.
authors: Département de biologie et Centre de recherche avancée en génomique environnementale, Université d'Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors: Nicholas
authors: N
authors: Petronella
authors: Guy
authors: G
authors: Drouin
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005785:Gene Conversion; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014357:Trypsin / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014357:Trypsin