Département de biologie et Centre de recherche avancée en génomique environnementale, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 6N5.
Genomics. 2011 Sep;98(3):173-81. doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2011.06.001. Epub 2011 Jun 12.
In humans, the growth hormone/chorionic somatomammotropin gene family is composed of five highly similar genes. We characterized the gene conversions that occurred between the growth hormone genes of 11 primate species. We detected 48 conversions using GENECONV and others were only detected using phylogenetic analyses. Gene conversions were detected in all species analyzed, their average size (±standard deviation) is 197.8±230.4 nucleotides, the size of the conversions is correlated with sequence similarity and converted regions are significantly more GC-rich than non-converted regions. Gene conversions have a stronger homogenizing effect in Hominidae genes than in other primate species. They are also less frequent in conserved gene regions and towards functionally important genes. This suggests that the high degree of sequence similarity observed between the growth hormone genes of primate species is a consequence of frequent gene conversions in gene regions which are under little selective constraints.
在人类中，生长激素/绒毛膜生长催乳素基因家族由五个高度相似的基因组成。我们描述了 11 种灵长类动物生长激素基因之间发生的基因转换。我们使用 GENECONV 检测到了 48 次转换，而其他转换仅通过系统发育分析检测到。在所有分析的物种中都检测到了基因转换，它们的平均大小（±标准偏差）为 197.8±230.4 个核苷酸，转换的大小与序列相似性相关，转换区的 GC 含量明显高于非转换区。基因转换在人科基因中比在其他灵长类物种中具有更强的均化作用。它们在保守基因区域和功能重要基因中也较少发生。这表明，在灵长类动物的生长激素基因之间观察到的高度序列相似性是基因区域中频繁发生基因转换的结果，这些基因区域受到的选择压力很小。
