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Gene Conversion and Positive Selection Driving the Evolution of the Caenorhabditis ssp. ZIM/HIM-8 Protein Family

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Abstract

In C. elegans, four C2H2 zinc-finger proteins (ZIM-1, ZIM-2, ZIM-3, and HIM-8), which are arranged in tandem, mediate chromosome-specific pairing and synapsis during meiosis. The zim/him-8 genes from three Caenorhabditis species were contrasted in an effort to investigate the mechanisms driving their evolution. Here it is shown that the preservation of higher degree of sequence similarity in the N-terminal portion, particularly in several regions within the second exon between paralogous zim genes (especially between zim-1 and zim-3), is due to independent interparalogue gene conversions. However, the evolutionary force is not uniformly strong across species. The present data reveal that more frequent gene conversion events have occurred in C. elegans, whereas only gene conversions between zim-1 and zim-3 are detected in C. remanei. Although gene conversions are predicted to be present among zim-1, zim-2, and zim-3 in C. briggsae, the conversion tracts between zim-1/zim-2 and zim-2/zim-3 are very short. Moreover, positive selection analysis was performed on the basis of the significantly discordant phylogenies reconstructed using the N- and C-terminal sequences, respectively. Several codon sites located in the regions that are supposed not to have experienced gene conversions are predicted to be under the influence of positive selection. In comparison, stronger positive selection has acted on the C-terminal region relative to the N-terminal region. Thus, the zim/him-8 genes that evolve concertedly have also been shown to undergo adaptive diversifying selection.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Dr. David Posada and the anonymous referees for their critical and constructive comments on an early draft of the manuscript. Likewise, great gratitude and appreciation are due to Professor Amitabh Joshi (chief editor of Journal of Genetics; Evolutionary and Organismal Biology Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research) and Dr. Xin’ai Zhao (Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory, International Rice Research Institute) for their help correcting the writing of the manuscript. This work was supported by an intramural fund from Zhejiang Forestry University (to Q. Liu).

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  1. School of Agriculture and Food Science, Zhejiang Forestry University, Lin’an 311300, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Qingpo Liu

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  1. Qingpo Liu
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Correspondence to Qingpo Liu.

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Liu, Q. Gene Conversion and Positive Selection Driving the Evolution of the Caenorhabditis ssp. ZIM/HIM-8 Protein Family. J Mol Evol 68, 217–226 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-009-9203-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-009-9203-z

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