Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 2, 494-504, Copyright © 1985 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
G Levinson, JL Marsh, JT Epplen and GA Gutman
Previous reports have interpreted hybridization between snake satellite DNA
and DNA clones from a variety of distant taxonomic groups as evidence for
evolutionary conservation, which implies common ancestry (homology) and/or
convergence (analogy) to produce the cross- hybridizing sequences. We have
isolated 11 clones from a genomic library of Drosophila melanogaster, using
a cloned 2.5-kb snake satellite probe of known nucleotide sequence. We have
also analysed published sequence data from snakes, mice, and Drosophila.
These data show that (1) all of the cross-hybridization between the snake,
fly, and mouse clones can be accounted for by the presence of either of two
tandem repeats, [GATA]n and [GACA]n and (2) these tandem repeats are
organized differently among the different species. We find no evidence that
these sequences are homologous apart from the existence of the simple
repeat itself, although their divergence from a common ancestral sequence
cannot be ruled out. The sequences contain a variety of homogeneous
clusters of tandem repeats of CATA, GA, TA, and CA, as well as GATA and
GACA. We suggest that these motifs may have arisen by a self-accelerating
process involving slipped-strand mispairing of DNA. Homogeneity of the
clusters might simply be the result of a rate of accumulation of tandem
repeats that exceeds that of other mutations.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Cross-hybridizing snake satellite, Drosophila, and mouse DNA sequences may have arisen independently
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine 92717.
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