Adaptive Evolution of CENP-A in Percid Fishes

Genes

Harriet N. A. Abbey²  Leos G. Kral¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30118, USA; E-Mail

关键词: CENP-A;    adaptive evolution;    percids;    fishes;   

DOI  :  10.3390/genes6030662

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Centromeric protein A (CENP-A) is the epigenetic determinant of centromeres. This protein has been shown to be adaptively evolving in a number of animal and plant species. In a previous communication we were able to demonstrate that signs of adaptive evolution were detected in the comparison of CENP-A sequences from three percid fish species. In this study we isolated the CENP-A gene from eight additional species from the Percidae family. With these sequences and those previously obtained, we carried out a more robust statistical analysis of codon specific positive selection in CENP-A coding sequences of eleven percid species. We were able to demonstrate that at least two amino acid positions within the N-terminal tail are under strong positive selection and that one of these positions is potentially a substrate for phosphorylation. While nonsynonymous substitutions were detected in the histone fold domain, these were not statistically supported as resulting from positive selection.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.