The roles of gene duplication, gene conversion and positive selection in rodent Esp and Mup pheromone gene families with comparison to the Abp family.

ABSTRACT: Three proteinaceous pheromone families, the androgen-binding proteins (ABPs), the exocrine-gland secreting peptides (ESPs) and the major urinary proteins (MUPs) are encoded by large gene families in the genomes of Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus. We studied the evolutionary histories of the Mup and Esp genes and compared them with what is known about the Abp genes. Apparently gene conversion has played little if any role in the expansion of the mouse Class A and Class B Mup genes and pseudogenes, and the rat Mups. By contrast, we found evidence of extensive gene conversion in many Esp genes although not in all of them. Our studies of selection identified at least two amino acid sites in β-sheets as having evolved under positive selection in the mouse Class A and Class B MUPs and in rat

SUBMITTER: Karn RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3477143 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature