Abstract
Statistical analysis of aligned DNA sequences, both among and within species, has proven to be a valuable tool for inferring the evolutionary history of genetic loci. Of particular interest are cases where the observed data depart from the neutral expectation and suggest adaptive evolution due to positive natural selection. In this chapter, we use the Drosophila janusA, janusB and ocnus genes to demonstrate methods of evolutionary inference from both inter- and intraspecific DNA sequence data. Interspecific comparisons suggest that these three paralogous, testes-expressed genes have diverged in function following duplication and have evolved under different selective constraints. The three genes show the increased rate of between-species amino acid replacement common to genes with reproductive function, which may be the result of recurrent positive selection. Intraspecific comparison of D. simulans alleles provides evidence for more recent positive selection in this region of the genome. There are two divergent haplotype groups segregating in the worldwide population, one of which has risen to high frequency within the past 5000 years. The observed pattern of within-species variation may best be explained by a selective sweep that has not gone to completion.
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Parsch, J., Meiklejohn, C.D., Hartl, D.L. (2005). Inferring Evolutionary History through Inter- and Intraspecific DNA Sequence Comparison. In: Nurminsky, D. (eds) Selective Sweep. Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-27651-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-27651-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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