Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 98, Issue 13, Pages 7375-7379Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.131568198
Keywords
positive selection; accessory glands; seminal fluid; peptide hormones; sexual conflict
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Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [R37 HD038921, HD38921, R01 HD038921] Funding Source: Medline
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01 GM036431, GM36431] Funding Source: Medline
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Sequence comparisons of genomes or expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from related organisms provide insight into functional conservation and diversification. We compare the sequences of ESTs from the male accessory gland of Drosophila simulans to their orthologs in its close relative Drosophila melanogaster, and demonstrate rapid divergence of many of these reproductive genes. Nineteen (similar to 11%) of 176 independent genes identified in the EST screen contain protein-coding regions with an excess of nonsynonymous over synonymous changes, suggesting that their divergence has been accelerated by positive Darwinian selection. Genes that encode putative accessory gland-specific seminal fluid proteins had a significantly elevated level of nonsynonymous substitution relative to nonaccessory gland-specific genes. With the 57 new accessory gland genes reported here, we predict that similar to 90% of the male accessory gland genes have been identified. The evolutionary EST approach applied here to identify putative targets of adaptive evolution is readily applicable to other tissues and organisms.
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