MBE Advance Access published online on June 27, 2003
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msg192
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2003; all rights reserved
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1 Institute of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nim21{at}cam.ac.uk.
Vomeronasal receptors are the major receptors for pheromones in vertebrates and five putative type 1 vomeronasal receptors (V1RL) have been identified in humans. The evolution of the V1RL1 gene in non-human primates, and patterns of selection on V1RL genes, were investigated. The presumed orthologue of V1RL1 was sequenced from thirteen species of non-human primate, and in eight of these species V1RL1 was a pseudogene. Phylogenetic reconstructions reveal that V1RL1 pseudogene formation occurred independently in multiple primate lineages. Using maximum likelihood estimates of dN/dS ratios in PAML we show that V1RL genes have evolved under neutral evolution in lineages in which they became a pseudogene. In contrast, among lineages in which V1RL genes contain an open reading frame, the majority of sites are under purifying selection and a minority of sites are under significant positive selection. These results provide an interesting case where all three categories of selection can be teased apart in the same dataset using maximum likelihood methods. The finding of positive selection on V1RL genes during primate evolution provides indirect support for the hypothesis that V1RL genes have a function in species-specific pheromone detection in primates. Key Words:
positive selection, vomeronasal receptor, V1R, V1RL1, primate, vomeronasal organ
© 2003 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
Original Articles
Positive Selection During the Diversification of Class I Vomeronasal Receptor-Like (V1RL) Genes, Putative Pheromone Receptor Genes, in Human and Primate Evolution
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