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MBE Advance Access published online on March 1, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm037
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© The Author 2007. 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@oxfordjournals.org

Letter

The Evolution of Spliceosomal Introns in Alveolates

Hung D. Nguyen, Maki Yoshihama and Naoya Kenmochi*

Frontier Science Research Center, University of Miyazaki 5200 Kihara, Kiyotake, Miyazaki 889-1692, Japan

* Corresponding author: Naoya Kenmochi, TEL/FAX: +81-985-85-9084, kenmochi{at}med.miyazaki-u.ac.jp

Received for publication January 29, 2007. Revision received February 22, 2007. Accepted for publication February 26, 2007.

Many issues concerning the evolution of spliceosomal introns remain poorly understood. In this respect, the reconstruction of the evolution of introns in deep branching species such as alveolates is of special significance. In this study, we inferred the intron evolution in alveolates using 3,368 intron positions in 162 orthologs from 10 species (nine alveolates and one outgroup, Homo sapiens). We found that although very few intron gains and losses have occurred in Theileria and Plasmodium recently, many intron gains and losses have occurred in the evolution of alveolates. Thus, the rates of intron gain and loss in alveolates have varied greatly across time and lineage. Our results seem to support the notion that massive intron gains and losses have occurred during short episodes, perhaps coinciding with major evolutionary events.

Key Words: Intron evolution • Intron gain • Intron loss • Spliceosomal intron • Alveolate evolution • Apicomplexan evolution


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