Underreplicated regions in Drosophila melanogaster are enriched with fast-evolving genes and highly conserved noncoding sequences.

ABSTRACT: Many late replicating regions are underreplicated in polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster. These regions contain silenced chromatin and overlap long syntenic blocks of conserved gene order in drosophilids. In this report we show that in D. melanogaster the underreplicated regions are enriched with fast-evolving genes lacking homologs in distant species such as mosquito or human, indicating that the phylogenetic conservation of genes correlates with replication timing and chromatin status. Drosophila genes without human homologs located in the underreplicated regions have higher nonsynonymous substitution rate and tend to encode shorter proteins when compared with those in the adjacent regions. At the same time, the underreplicated regions are enriched with ultraconserved element

SUBMITTER: Makunin IV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4159006 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature