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MBE Advance Access published online on April 20, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msi149
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© 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
Accepted March 21, 2005

Letter

Degeneration and Domestication of a Selfish Gene in Yeast: Molecular Evolution Vs. Site-Directed Mutagenesis

Vassiliki Koufopanou 1* and Austin Burt 1

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berks., SL5 7PY, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Vassiliki Koufopanou, E-mail: v.koufopanou{at}imperial.ac.uk


  Abstract

VDE is a homing endonuclease gene (HEG) in yeasts with an unusual evolutionary history including horizontal transmission, degeneration, and domestication into the mating-type switching locus HO. We investigate here the effects of these features on its molecular evolution. In addition, we correlate rates of evolution with results from site-directed mutagenesis studies. Functional elements have lower rates of evolution than degenerate ones, and higher conservation at functionally important sites. However, functionally important and unimportant sites are equally likely to have been involved in the evolution of new function during the domestication of VDE into HO. The domestication event also indicates that VDE has been lost in some species, and that VDE has been present in yeasts for more than 50MY.

Keywords: VDE; HEG; site-directed mutagenesis; molecular evolution; Saccharomycetaceae.
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