Coalescent Processes and Relaxation of Selective Constraints Leading to Contrasting Genetic Diversity at Paralogs AtHVA22d and AtHVA22e in Arabidopsis Thaliana
Abstract
Duplicate loci offer a very powerful system for understanding the complicated genome structure and adaptive evolution of a gene family. in this study, the genetic variation at paralogs AtHVA22d and AtHVA22e, members of an ABA- and stress-inducible gene family, is examined in the selfing Arabidopsis thaliana. Population genetic analysis indicates contrasting levels of nucleotide diversity at overall exon sequence and nonsynonymous sites between AtHVA22d (π=0.00337, πrep=0.00158) and AtHVA22e (π=0.00054, πrep=0.00023). the fact of Ka/Ks ratios significantly less than 1 in all sequences indicates that both genes are functional and subjected to purifying selection. in addition, rooted at barley HVA22, accelerated evolution is detected at replacement changes in the AtHVA22d locus, indicating relaxation of purifying selection after gene duplication. However, relative rate tests reveal no deviation from the neutrality at synonymous sites between the two paralogs. Based on clock-like evolution, the rate of synonymous substitution is estimated at 1.83 × 10−9 substitutions per site per year; and the divergence of the two paralogs is traced to 90 MYA, coinciding with a period of the diversification of angiosperms. Given no codon usage bias in both genes, natural selection alone cannot account for the 6.4-fold differences in the nucleotide variation at synonymous sites between the two paralogs. Random processes resulting in different coalescence times, 3.65 MYA at AtHVA22d vs. 1.20 MYA at AtHVA22e, may have predominantly contributed to the evident differences of the genetic diversity. Partially nonoverlapping modes of expression between the two functional paralogs suggest a subfunctionalization hypothesis for explaining the fates of duplicate loci.
Recommended Citation
N. Chen et al., "Coalescent Processes and Relaxation of Selective Constraints Leading to Contrasting Genetic Diversity at Paralogs AtHVA22d and AtHVA22e in Arabidopsis Thaliana," Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 616 - 626, Elsevier, Inc., Aug 2004.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2004.01.015
Department(s)
Biological Sciences
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1055-7903
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2004 Elsevier, Inc., All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Aug 2004
