Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on April 27, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(7):1621-1626; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi154
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
22/7/1621    most recent
msi154v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (6)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Neafsey, D. E.
Right arrow Articles by Berriman, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Neafsey, D. E.
Right arrow Articles by Berriman, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Research Article

Evolution of Noncoding and Silent Coding Sites in the Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi Genomes

Daniel E. Neafsey*,1, Daniel L. Hartl* and Matt Berriman{dagger}

* Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; and {dagger} Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom

E-mail: neafsey{at}broad.mit.edu.

We compared levels of sequence divergence between fourfold synonymous coding sites and noncoding sites from the intergenic and intronic regions of the Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium reichenowi genomes. We observed significant differences in the level of divergence between these classes of silent sites. Fourfold synonymous coding sites exhibited the highest level of sequence divergence, followed by introns, and then intergenic sequences. This pattern of relative divergence rates has been observed in primate genomes but was unexpected in Plasmodium due to a paucity of variation at silent sites in P. falciparum and the corollary hypothesis that silent sites in this genome may be subject to atypical selective constraints. Exclusion of hypermutable CpG dinucleotides reduces the divergence level of synonymous coding sites to that of intergenic sites but does not diminish the significantly higher divergence level of introns relative to intergenic sites. A greater than expected incidence of CpG dinucleotides in intergenic regions less than 500 bp from genes may indicate selective maintenance of regulatory motifs containing CpGs. Divergence rates of different classes of silent sites in these Plasmodium genomes are determined by a combination of mutational and selective pressures.

Key Words: malaria • plasmodium • reichenowi • noncoding • divergence • introns


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
S. W. Roy and D. Penny
Widespread Intron Loss Suggests Retrotransposon Activity in Ancient Apicomplexans
Mol. Biol. Evol., September 1, 2007; 24(9): 1926 - 1933.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Genome ResHome page
S. W. Roy and D. Penny
Large-scale intron conservation and order-of-magnitude variation in intron loss/gain rates in apicomplexan evolution
Genome Res., October 1, 2006; 16(10): 1270 - 1275.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
S. W. Roy, M. Irimia, and D. Penny
Very Little Intron Gain in Entamoeba histolytica Genes Laterally Transferred from Prokaryotes
Mol. Biol. Evol., October 1, 2006; 23(10): 1824 - 1827.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.