Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 16, 706-710, Copyright © 1999 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
AP Rooney and J Zhang
Protamines are arginine-rich proteins that replace histones and bind sperm
DNA during spermatogenesis in vertebrates. Previous studies have shown that
protamine exons evolve faster than does the protamine intron. It has been
suggested that this is a result of a relaxation of functional constraint.
However, a more likely explanation is that the evolutionary rate of exons
has been accelerated by positive Darwinian selection, because introns are
generally believed to evolve in a neutral fashion. Therefore, we examined
the possibility that positive selection has been acting on the protamine
genes of three groups of placental mammals: primates (hominoids and Old
World monkeys), rodents (mice, rats, and guinea pigs), and pecoran
ruminants (deer and bovids). We found that the nucleotide substitution rate
at nonsynonymous sites is significantly higher than the rate at synonymous
and intron sites for protamine P1 of hominoids and Old World monkeys. This
result suggests that positive selection has been operating on protamine P1
of these species. In contrast, no clear-cut evidence of positive selection
was found for protamine P1 of ruminants and rodents or protamine P2 of
primates. The agent of positive selection on primate protamine P1 remains
unknown, though sperm competition is a possibility. Further investigations
on the function and intraspecific polymorphism of this protein are needed
in order to identify the selection agent.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Rapid evolution of a primate sperm protein: relaxation of functional constraint or positive Darwinian selection?
Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802, USA. rooney@imeg.bio.psu.edu
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