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MBE Advance Access published online on June 1, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msi178
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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 May 23, 2005

Research Article

Positive Selection for Indel Substitutions in the Rodent Sperm Protein Catsper1

Ondrej Podlaha 1 3, David M. Webb 1 3, Priscilla K. Tucker 2, and Jianzhi Zhang 1*

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Jianzhi Zhang, E-mail: jianzhi{at}umich.edu


  Abstract

Catsper1 is a voltage-gated calcium channel located in the plasma membrane of the sperm tail and is necessary for sperm motility and fertility in mice. We here examine the evolutionary pattern of Catsper1 from 9 species of the rodent subfamily Murinae of family Muridae. We show that the rate of insertion/deletion (indel) substitutions in exon 1 of the gene is 4-15 times that in introns or neutral genomic regions, suggesting the presence of strong positive selection that promotes fixations of indel mutations in exon 1. The number of indel polymorphisms within species appears higher than expected from interspecific comparisons, although there is too little data to provide a statistically significant conclusion. These results, together with an earlier report in primates, indicate that positive selection promoting length variation in Catsper1 may be widespread in mammals. A structural model of Catsper1 suggested the importance of the exon 1 encoded region in regulating channel inactivation, which may affect sperm mobility and sperm competition. Our findings provide a necessary foundation for future experimental investigations of Catsper1's function in sperm physiology and role in sperm competition using rodent models.

Keywords: evolutionary rate; indel; positive selection; sperm; rodents.

3These authors contributed equally to this work.


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