Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on December 2, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2006 23(3):644-654; doi:10.1093/molbev/msj072
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Material
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/3/644    most recent
msj072v1
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 (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Perry, G. H.
Right arrow Articles by Stone, A. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Perry, G. H.
Right arrow Articles by Stone, A. C.
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@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

Molecular Evolution of the Primate Developmental Genes MSX1 and PAX9

George H. Perry*, Brian C. Verrelli{dagger} and Anne C. Stone*

* School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University and {dagger} Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics, The Biodesign Institute and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University

E-mail: acstone{at}asu.edu.

In primates, the craniofacial skeleton and the dentition are marked by high levels of interspecific variation. Despite this, there are few comparative species studies conducted at the molecular level to investigate this functional diversity. We have determined nucleotide sequences of MSX1 and PAX9, two developmental genes, in a sample of 27 diverse primate species in order to identify coding or regulatory variation that may be associated with phenotypic diversity. Our analyses have identified four highly conserved noncoding sequences, including one that is conserved across primates and with dogs but not with mice. Although we find that substitution rates vary significantly across MSX1 exons, comparisons of nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rates (dN/dS) suggest that, as a whole, MSX1 and PAX9 amino acid sequences have been under functional constraint throughout primate evolution. Compared to all other primates in our sample, our analysis of exon 1 in MSX1 finds an unusual pattern of amino acid substitution for Tarsius syrichta, a member of a lineage (tarsiers) that has many unique features among primates. For example, tarsiers are the only extant primates without deciduous incisors, and MSX1 is expressed exclusively in the incisor regions during the earliest stages of dental development. Our overall results provide insight into the utility of comparative species analyses of highly conserved developmental genes and their roles in the evolution of complex phenotypes.

Key Words: comparative genomics • conserved noncoding sequence • homeobox • craniofacial skeleton • dentition • tarsier • callitrichid • strepsirrhine


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
H. Takahashi, A. Kamiya, A. Ishiguro, A. C. Suzuki, N. Saitou, A. Toyoda, and J. Aruga
Conservation and Diversification of Msx Protein in Metazoan Evolution
Mol. Biol. Evol., January 1, 2008; 25(1): 69 - 82.
[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.