Rapid evolution of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in humans and other primates.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The maintenance of chromosomal integrity is an essential task of every living organism and cellular repair mechanisms exist to guard against insults to DNA. Given the importance of this process, it is expected that DNA repair proteins would be evolutionarily conserved, exhibiting very minimal sequence change over time. However, BRCA1, an essential gene involved in DNA repair, has been reported to be evolving rapidly despite the fact that many protein-altering mutations within this gene convey a significantly elevated risk for breast and ovarian cancers.

Results

To obtain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary trajectory of BRCA1, we analyzed complete BRCA1 gene sequences from 23 primate species. We show that specific amino acid sites have experienced repeated

SUBMITTER: Lou DI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4106182 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature