MBE Advance Access published online on August 20, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn182
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Research Article |
Adaptive Evolution in Rodent Seminal Vesicle Secretion Proteins
Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Box 355065, 1705 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA 98195-5065
* Current address: 233 Biotech / Cornell University / Ithaca, NY 14853
Correspondence should be directed to: Robert.C. Karn, Ph.D., Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Foege Building S-250 / Box 355065, 1705 NE Pacific St, Seattle WA 98195-5065, Office: 206-685-4408. FAX: e-mail: rkarn{at}u.washington.edu.
Received for publication May 21, 2008. Revision received July 17, 2008. Accepted for publication July 30, 2008.
Proteins involved in reproductive fitness have evolved unusually rapidly across diverse groups of organisms. These reproductive proteins show unusually high rates of amino acid substitutions, suggesting that the proteins have been subject to positive selection. We sought to identify seminal fluid proteins experiencing adaptive evolution because such proteins are often involved in sperm competition, host immunity to pathogens and manipulation of female reproductive physiology and behavior. We performed an evolutionary screen of the mouse prostate transcriptome for genes with elevated evolutionary rates between mouse and rat. We observed that secreted rodent prostate proteins evolve approximately twice as fast as non-secreted proteins, remarkably similar to findings in the primate prostate and in the Drosophila male accessory gland. Our screen led us to identify and characterize a group of seminal vesicle secretion (Svs) proteins and to show that the gene Svs7 is evolving very rapidly, with many amino acid sites under positive selection. Another gene in this group, Svs5, showed evidence of branch-specific selection in the rat. We also found that Svs7 is under selection in primates and, by using three-dimensional models, demonstrated that the same regions have been under selection in both groups. Svs7 has been identified as mouse caltrin, a protein involved in sperm capacitation, the process responsible for the timing of changes in sperm activity and behavior, following ejaculation. We propose that the most likely explanation of the adaptive evolution of Svs7 that we have observed in rodents and primates stems from an important function in sperm competition.
Key Words: Evolutionary screen • positive selection • adaptive evolution • seminal vesicle proteins • prostate gene expression
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