Molecular Biology and Evolution 19:689-697 (2002)
© 2002 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
Purifying Selection and Birth-and-death Evolution in the Histone H4 Gene Family
Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics and Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University
Histones are small basic proteins encoded by a multigene family and are responsible for the nucleosomal organization of chromatin in eukaryotes. Because of the high degree of protein sequence conservation, it is generally believed that histone genes are subject to concerted evolution. However, purifying selection can also generate a high degree of sequence homogeneity. In this study, we examined the long-term evolution of histone H4 genes to determine whether concerted evolution or purifying selection was the major factor for maintaining sequence homogeneity. We analyzed the proportion (pS) of synonymous nucleotide differences between the H4 genes from 59 species of fungi, plants, animals, and protists and found that pS is generally very high and often close to the saturation level (pS ranging from 0.3 to 0.6) even though protein sequences are virtually identical for all H4 genes. A small proportion of genes showed a low level of pS values, but this appeared to be caused by recent gene duplication. Our findings suggest that the members of this gene family evolve according to the birth-and-death model of evolution under strong purifying selection. Using histone-like genes in archaebacteria as outgroups, we also showed that H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 histone genes in eukaryotes form separate clusters and that these classes of genes diverged nearly at the same time, before the eukaryotic kingdoms diverged.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  R. Zhang, Y.-Q. Wang, and B. Su Molecular Evolution of a Primate-Specific microRNA Family Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2008; 25(7): 1493 - 1502. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Y. Moran, H. Weinberger, J. C. Sullivan, A. M. Reitzel, J. R. Finnerty, and M. Gurevitz Concerted Evolution of Sea Anemone Neurotoxin Genes Is Revealed through Analysis of the Nematostella vectensis Genome Mol. Biol. Evol., April 1, 2008; 25(4): 737 - 747. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
F. G. Hoffmann, J. C. Opazo, and J. F. Storz Rapid Rates of Lineage-Specific Gene Duplication and Deletion in the {alpha}-Globin Gene Family Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2008; 25(3): 591 - 602. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. Krucken, R. J. Hosse, A. N. Mouafo, R. Entzeroth, S. Bierbaum, P. Marinovski, K. Hain, G. Greif, and F. Wunderlich Excystation of Eimeria tenella Sporozoites Impaired by Antibody Recognizing Gametocyte/Oocyst Antigens GAM22 and GAM56 Eukaryot. Cell, February 1, 2008; 7(2): 202 - 211. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. G. Koziol and D. G. Durnford Euglena Light-Harvesting Complexes Are Encoded by Multifarious Polyprotein mRNAs that Evolve in Concert Mol. Biol. Evol., January 1, 2008; 25(1): 92 - 100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. M. Mount, V. Gotea, C.-F. Lin, K. Hernandez, and W. Makalowski Spliceosomal small nuclear RNA genes in 11 insect genomes RNA, January 1, 2007; 13(1): 5 - 14. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. S. Novozhilov, G. P. Karev, and E. V. Koonin Biological applications of the theory of birth-and-death processes Brief Bioinform, March 1, 2006; 7(1): 70 - 85. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 G. F.J. ARMBRUSTER, M. BOHME, D. BERNHARD, and M. SCHLEGEL THE H3/H4 HISTONE GENE CLUSTER OF LAND SNAILS (GASTROPODA: STYLOMMATOPHORA): TS/TV RATIO, GC3 DRIVE AND SIGNALS IN STYLOMMATOPHORAN PHYLOGENY J. Mollus. Stud., November 1, 2005; 71(4): 339 - 348. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y. Li, C. Ye, P. Shi, X.-J. Zou, R. Xiao, Y.-Y. Gong, and Y.-P. Zhang Independent origin of the growth hormone gene family in New World monkeys and Old World monkeys/hominoids J. Mol. Endocrinol., October 1, 2005; 35(2): 399 - 409. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y. Go, Y. Satta, O. Takenaka, and N. Takahata Lineage-Specific Loss of Function of Bitter Taste Receptor Genes in Humans and Nonhuman Primates Genetics, May 1, 2005; 170(1): 313 - 326. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Pineau, M. Henry, R. Suspene, A. Marchio, A. Dettai, R. Debruyne, T. Petit, A. Lecu, P. Moisson, A. Dejean, et al. A Universal Primer Set for PCR Amplification of Nuclear Histone H4 Genes from All Animal Species Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2005; 22(3): 582 - 588. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. M. Seabury, R. L. Honeycutt, A. P. Rooney, N. D. Halbert, and J. N. Derr Prion protein gene (PRNP) variants and evidence for strong purifying selection in functionally important regions of bovine exon 3 PNAS, October 19, 2004; 101(42): 15142 - 15147. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Eirin-Lopez, A. M. Gonzalez-Tizon, A. Martinez, and J. Mendez Birth-and-Death Evolution with Strong Purifying Selection in the Histone H1 Multigene Family and the Origin of orphon H1 Genes Mol. Biol. Evol., October 1, 2004; 21(10): 1992 - 2003. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
N. Nikolaidis and M. Nei Concerted and Nonconcerted Evolution of the Hsp70 Gene Superfamily in Two Sibling Species of Nematodes Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2004; 21(3): 498 - 505. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. A. Katz, J. G. Bornstein, E. Lasek-Nesselquist, and S. V. Muse Dramatic Diversity of Ciliate Histone H4 Genes Revealed by Comparisons of Patterns of Substitutions and Paralog Divergences Among Eukaryotes Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2004; 21(3): 555 - 562. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. K. Kojima and H. Fujiwara Cross-Genome Screening of Novel Sequence-Specific Non-LTR Retrotransposons: Various Multicopy RNA Genes and Microsatellites Are Selected as Targets Mol. Biol. Evol., February 1, 2004; 21(2): 207 - 217. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|