Evidence of neofunctionalization after the duplication of the highly conserved Polycomb group gene Caf1-55 in the obscura group of Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila CAF1-55 protein is a subunit of the Polycomb repressive complex PRC2 and other protein complexes. It is a multifunctional and evolutionarily conserved protein that participates in nucleosome assembly and remodelling, as well as in the epigenetic regulation of a large set of target genes. Here, we describe and analyze the duplication of Caf1-55 in the obscura group of Drosophila. Paralogs exhibited a strong asymmetry in evolutionary rates, which suggests that they have evolved according to a neofunctionalization process. During this process, the ancestral copy has been kept under steady purifying selection to retain the ancestral function and the derived copy (Caf1-55dup) that originated via a DNA-mediated duplication event ~18 Mya, has been under clear episodic selection. Differ

SUBMITTER: Calvo-Martin JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5240099 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature