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Isolation, Characterization, and Evolutionary Divergence of Mouse RNase 6: Evidence for Unusual Evolution in Rodents

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Abstract

The evolution of the ribonuclease A (RNase A) vertebrate-specific enzyme family is interesting in that specific gene lineages appear to be responding to unique selective pressures in wildly diverse manners to generate proteins that are capable of reducing the infectivity of viruses, killing systemic pathogens, and inducing the growth of blood vessels all while maintaining the signature motifs of a ribonuclease. In this paper, we present the DNA sequence and gene structure of Mus musculus RNase 6 and examine the expression pattern and enzymatic activity of the recombinant protein. M. musculus RNase 6 has a limited expression pattern compared to human RNase 6 and is an efficient ribonuclease, with a catalytic efficiency 17-fold higher than that of human protein. Evo- lutionary analysis reveals that RNase 6 was subject to unusual evolutionary forces (dN/dS = 1.2) in an ancestral rodent lineage before the separation of Mus and Rattus. However, more recent evolution of rodent RNase 6 has been relatively conserved, with an average dN/dS of 0.66. These data suggest that the ancestral rodent RNase 6 was subject to accelerated evolution, resulting in the conserved modern gene, which most likely plays an important role in mouse physiology.

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Acknowledgment

Dr. Jianzhi Zhang is support by NIH Grant GM67030.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eosinophil Biology Section, Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Kimberly D. Dyer & Helene F. Rosenberg

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Jianzhi Zhang

Authors
  1. Kimberly D. Dyer
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  2. Helene F. Rosenberg
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  3. Jianzhi Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kimberly D. Dyer.

Additional information

Reviewing Editor: Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers

The GenBank accession numbers for the new genes presented here are as follows: Mus musculus, AY545655; Rattus norvegicus, AY545654; Mus spicilegus, AY545653; Mus caroli, AY545651; and Mus pahari, AY545652.

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Dyer, K.D., Rosenberg, H.F. & Zhang, J. Isolation, Characterization, and Evolutionary Divergence of Mouse RNase 6: Evidence for Unusual Evolution in Rodents. J Mol Evol 59, 657–665 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2657-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2657-0

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