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The recent origin of the Sdic gene cluster in the melanogaster subgroup

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Abstract

Gene families are composed of closely related genes and are an important part of eukaryotic genomes. In the proximal region of the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster there is a cluster of four tandem Sdic genes, located between the gene Cdic and the gene AnnX. Sdic is a chimeric gene that encodes a novel protein with sperm-specific expression. It had been hypothesized that the Sdic gene cluster was formed after the split of D. melanogaster and D. simulans. To study the evolution of this cluster, the sequence of this region was studied in several Drosophilidae species. In all species analyzed, Sdic genes are absent and AnnX and Cdic are adjacent to each other. The results allowed the inference of the ancestral situation and the reconstruction of the evolution of the cluster, and confirm that the Sdic cluster was indeed formed in the lineage that gave rise to D. melanogaster, being one of the youngest gene clusters known.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Abbreviations

AnnX :

Gene encoding annexin X

Cdic :

Gene encoding cytoplasmic dynein intermediate chain

Sdic :

Gene encoding sperm-specific dynein intermediate chain

bp:

Base pair(s)

A:

Adenosine

C:

Cytidine

G:

Guanosine

T:

Thymidine

LTR:

Long terminal repeat

UTR:

Untranslated region

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Daniel Hartl for his guidance and support, to Margarida Matos and two anonymous reviewers for comments and reviews of the manuscript, and to Daniel Müller for the illustration. The work was supported by a fellowship from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal and a short-term fellowship from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande edifício C2, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    Rita Ponce

  2. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Rita Ponce

Authors
  1. Rita Ponce
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Correspondence to Rita Ponce.

Supplementary Material

10709_2008_9288_MOESM1_ESM.doc

MOESM1 Table 1 Complete alignment of the region between genes AnnX and Cdic in the species D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba, D. teissieri and D. erecta (DOC 52 kb)

10709_2008_9288_MOESM2_ESM.doc

MOESM2 Table 2 Complete alignment of the region between genes AnnX and Cdic in the species D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba, D. teissieri and D. erecta and intergenic regions of the Sdic cluster in D. melanogaster (DOC 70 kb)

10709_2008_9288_MOESM3_ESM.doc

MOESM3 Table 3 Sequence alignments of AnnX gene in D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba, D. teissieri and D. erecta (DOC 53 kb)

10709_2008_9288_MOESM4_ESM.doc

MOESM4 Table 4 Sequence alignments of Cdic gene in D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. yakuba, D. teissieri and D. erecta (DOC 45 kb)

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Ponce, R. The recent origin of the Sdic gene cluster in the melanogaster subgroup. Genetica 135, 415–418 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-008-9288-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-008-9288-0

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