Evolution of the male-determining gene SRY within the cat family Felidae.

ABSTRACT: In most placental mammals, SRY is a single-copy gene located on the Y chromosome and is the trigger for male sex determination during embryonic development. Here, we present comparative genomic analyses of SRY (705 bp) along with the adjacent noncoding 5' flank (997 bp) and 3' flank (948 bp) in 36 species of the cat family Felidae. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the noncoding genomic flanks and SRY closely track species divergence. However, several inconsistencies are observed in SRY. Overall, the gene exhibits purifying selection to maintain function (omega = 0.815) yet SRY is under positive selection in two of the eight felid lineages. SRY has low numbers of nucleotide substitutions, yet most encode amino acid changes between species, and four different species have significantly al

SUBMITTER: King V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1855139 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature