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Mutational mechanisms, phylogeny, and evolution of a repetitive region within a clock gene ofDrosophila melanogaster

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Abstract

TheD. melanogaster clock geneperiod (per) is an internally repetitive gene encoding a tandem array of Thr-Gly codons that are highly polymorphic in length in European natural populations. The two major length variants, (Thr-Gly)20 and (Thr-Gly)17, show a highly significant latitudinal cline. In this study we present the complete sequence of the Thr-Gly region of 91 individuals from 6 natural populations ofD. melanogaster, 5 from Europe and 1 from North Africa. We further characterized these 91 individuals for polymorphic sites in two other regions, one upstream and one downstream of the Thr-Gly repeat. We used the haplotypic combinations of Thr-Gly allele with flanking markers in an attempt to identify the mechanisms involved in the evolution of theD. melanogaster Thr-Gly region and to infer the phylogenetic relationship existing among the Thr-Gly alleles. We observe evidence for both intra- and interallelic mutational mechanisms, including replication slippage, unequal crossing-over, and gene conversion.

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  1. A. A. Peixoto

    Present address: Department of Biology, Brandeis University, 02254, Waltham, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH, Leicester, UK

    E. Rosato, A. A. Peixoto & C. P. Kyriacou

  2. Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita' di Padova, Via Trieste 75, 35121, Padova, Italy

    E. Rosato, A. Gallippi & R. Costa

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita' di Lecce, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    R. Costa

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  1. E. Rosato
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  4. C. P. Kyriacou
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  5. R. Costa
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Rosato, E., Peixoto, A.A., Gallippi, A. et al. Mutational mechanisms, phylogeny, and evolution of a repetitive region within a clock gene ofDrosophila melanogaster . J Mol Evol 42, 392–408 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02498633

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02498633

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