Molecular evolution of serine/arginine splicing factors family (SR) by positive selection.

The serine-rich (SR) protein family is involved in the pre-mRNA splicing process and the DNA sequences of the corresponding genes are highly conserved in the metazoan organisms. The mammalian SR proteins consist of one or two characteristic RNA binding domains (RBD), containing the signature sequences RDAEDA and SWQDLKD and a RS (arginine/serine-rich) domain. We used the amino acid and nucleotide sequences deposited in GenBank and Swiss-Prot databases to perform a phylogenetic analysis using bioinformatics tools. The results of the phylogenetic trees suggest that this family has evolved by several gene duplication events as a result of a positive selection mechanism.