Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 14, 985-993, Copyright © 1997 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
CP Vieira, J Vieira and DL Hartl
We analyzed a 5,770-bp genomic region of Drosophila virilis that contains a
cluster of two maltase genes showing sequence similarity with genes in a
cluster of three maltase genes previously identified in Drosophila
melanogaster. The D. virilis maltase genes are designated Mav1 and Mav2. In
addition to being different in gene number, the cluster of genes in D.
virilis differs dramatically in intron-exon structure from the maltase
genes in D. melanogaster, the transcriptional orientation of the genes in
the cluster also differs between the species. Our findings support a model
in which the maltase gene cluster in D. virilis and D. melanogaster evolved
independently. Furthermore, while in D. melanogaster the maltase gene
cluster lies only 10 kb distant from the larval cuticle gene cluster, the
maltase and larval cuticle gene clusters in D. virilis are located very far
apart and on a different chromosome than that expected from the known
chromosome arm homologies between D. virilis and D. melanogaster. A region
of the genome containing the maltase and larval cuticle gene clusters
appears to have been relocated between nonhomologous chromosomes.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The evolution of small gene clusters: evidence for an independent origin of the maltase gene cluster in Drosophila virilis and Drosophila melanogaster
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
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