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MBE Advance Access originally published online on December 18, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(3):732-742; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl201
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Published by Oxford University Press 2006.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Research Articles

Drosophila mojoless, a Retroposed GSK-3, Has Functionally Diverged to Acquire an Essential Role in Male Fertility

Rasika Kalamegham*,{dagger}, David Sturgill*, Esther Siegfried{dagger},1 and Brian Oliver*

* Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
{dagger} Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, The Pennsylvania State University

E-mail: rasika{at}niddk.nih.gov.

Accepted for publication December 12, 2006.

Retroposition is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism for the acquisition of new genes. We show that a glycogen synthase kinase-3 gene, shaggy (sgg), retroposed at least 50 MYA in the Drosophila genus to generate a new gene, mojoless (mjl). We have extensively analyzed the function of mjl and examined its functional divergence from the parental gene sgg in Drosophila melanogaster. Unlike Sgg, which is expressed in many tissues of both sexes, Mjl is expressed specifically in the male germ line, where it is required for male germ line survival. Our analysis indicates that mjl has acquired a specific function in the maintenance of male germ line viability. However, it has not completely lost its ancestral biochemical function and can partially compensate for loss of the parental gene sgg when ectopically expressed in somatic cells. We postulate that mjl has undergone functional diversification and is now under stabilizing selection in the Drosophila genus.

Key Words: germ cell • male sterile • gene duplication • GSK-3 • adaptive evolution • retroposition • male germ line

1 Present address: Department of Biology, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Koichiro Tamura, Associate Editor


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