Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 11, 875-885, Copyright © 1994 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
DL Ellsworth, D Hewett-Emmett and WH Li
The genomes of homeothermic (warm-blooded) vertebrates are mosaic
interspersions of homogeneously GC-rich and GC-poor regions (isochores).
Evolution of genome compartmentalization and GC-rich isochores is
hypothesized to reflect either selective advantages of an elevated GC
content or chromosome location and mutational pressure associated with the
timing of DNA replication in germ cells. To address the present controversy
regarding the origins and maintenance of isochores in homeothermic
vertebrates, newly obtained as well as published nucleotide sequences of
the insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) genes, members of a
well-characterized gene family believed to have evolved by repeated
duplication and divergence, were utilized to examine the evolution of base
composition in nonconstrained (flanking) and weakly constrained (introns
and fourfold degenerate sites) regions. A phylogeny derived from amino acid
sequences supports a common evolutionary history for the insulin/IGF family
genes. In cold- blooded vertebrates, insulin and the IGFs were similar in
base composition. In contrast, insulin and IGF-II demonstrate dramatic
increases in GC richness in mammals, but no such trend occurred in IGF- I.
Base composition of the coding portions of the insulin and IGF genes across
vertebrates correlated (r = 0.90) with that of the introns and flanking
regions. The GC content of homologous introns differed dramatically between
insulin/IGF-II and IGF-I genes in mammals but was similar to the GC level
of noncoding regions in neighboring genes. Our findings suggest that the
base composition of introns and flanking regions is determined by
chromosomal location and the mutational pressure of the isochore in which
the sequences are embedded. An elevated GC content at codon third positions
in the insulin and the IGF genes may reflect selective constraints on the
usage of synonymous codons.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Evolution of base composition in the insulin and insulin-like growth factor genes
Center for Demographic and Population Genetics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 77225.
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