MBE Advance Access published online on August 29, 2003
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msg185
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2003; all rights reserved
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1 Department of Biology, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, 106; Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 105; Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ciwu{at}uchicago.edu.
In an attempt to identify all fast-evolving genes between human and other primates, we found the three glycophorins, GPA, GPB and GPE, to have the highest rate of nonsynonymous substitutions among the 280 genes surveyed. The Ka/Ks ratios are generally greater than 3 for GPA, GPB and GPE in human, chimpanzee and gorilla, indicating positive selection. The uniformly high substitution rate across loci can be explained by the frequent sequence exchanges among genes. GPA is the receptor for the binding ligand, EBA-175, of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. The levels of nonsynonymous divergence and polymorphism of EBA-175 are also the highest in the genome of P. falciparum. We hypothesize that GPA has been evolving rapidly to evade malaria parasites. Both the high rate of nonsynonymous substitutions and frequent interlocus conversions may be means of evasion. The support for the evasion hypothesis is still indirect but, unlike other hypotheses, it can be tested specifically and systematically. Key Words:
positive selection, glycophorin, malaria, gene conversion, rapid evolution
© 2003 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
Original Articles
Rapidly Evolving Genes in Human - I. The Glycophorins and Their Possible Role in Evading Malaria Parasites
2 Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
3 Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 105
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