Birth of a chimeric primate gene by capture of the transposase gene from a mobile element.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of new genes and functions is of central importance to the evolution of species. The contribution of various types of duplications to genetic innovation has been extensively investigated. Less understood is the creation of new genes by recycling of coding material from selfish mobile genetic elements. To investigate this process, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of SETMAR, a new primate chimeric gene resulting from fusion of a SET histone methyltransferase gene to the transposase gene of a mobile element. We show that the transposase gene was recruited as part of SETMAR 40-58 million years ago, after the insertion of an Hsmar1 transposon downstream of a preexisting SET gene, followed by the de novo exonization of previously noncoding sequence and the creation of a ne

SUBMITTER: Cordaux R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1472436 | biostudies-literature | 2006 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature