Natural selection drives rapid evolution of mouse embryonic heart enhancers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mouse E11.5 embryonic heart enhancers were found to exhibit exceptionally weak sequence conservation during vertebrate evolution compared to enhancers of other developing organs. However, it is unknown whether this phenomenon is due to elevated mutation rates, or is a consequence of natural selection.

Results

In this study, based on the aligned orthologous genomic sequences of mouse and other closely related mammals, the substitution rates of fourfold degenerate sites or intron sequences in neighboring genes were used as neutral references to normalize substitution rates of mouse enhancers. Subsequent comparisons indicated that heart enhancers' evolutionary rates were increased by natural selection. Correspondingly, the results of Fisher's exact tests to examine t

SUBMITTER: Liao BY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3521173 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature