Abstract
In insects, the odorant receptor (Or) multigene family is an intermediate-sized family with genes present in all chromosomes, indicating that duplication followed by interchromosomal transposition played an important role in the early stages of the family evolution. Here, we have explored the occurrence of interchromosomal transpositions in more recent stages through the comparative analysis of a subset of Or genes in Drosophila, where the gene content of chromosomal arms is highly conserved. The studied subset consisted of 11 Or genes located on the left arm of chromosome 3 (Muller’s D element) in D. melanogaster. Our study focused on the number and chromosomal arm location of these members of the family across the 12 Drosophila species with complete genome sequences. In contrast to previous results from in situ hybridization comparative mapping that were mainly based on single-copy genes, our study, based on members of a multigene family of moderate size, revealed repeated interchromosomal transposition events and a complex history of some of the studied genes.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Carmen Segarra and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript and David Salguero for technical assistance. I.C.C. was supported by predoctoral fellowship SFRH/BD/11107/2002 from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. I.C.C. dedicates this work to the memory of E. Pires. This work was supported by Grant BFU2004-02253 from Comisión Interdepartamental de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain; Grant 2005SGR-00166 from Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològica, Catalonia, Spain; and special support (Distinció per la Promoció de la Recerca Universitària) from Generalitat de Catalunya to M.A.
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Conceição, I.C., Aguadé, M. High Incidence of Interchromosomal Transpositions in the Evolutionary History of a Subset of Or Genes in Drosophila . J Mol Evol 66, 325–332 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-008-9071-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-008-9071-y