Large X-Linked Palindromes Undergo Arm-to-Arm Gene Conversion across Mus Lineages.

ABSTRACT: Large (>10 kb), nearly identical (>99% nucleotide identity), palindromic sequences are enriched on mammalian sex chromosomes. Primate Y-palindromes undergo high rates of arm-to-arm gene conversion, a proposed mechanism for maintaining their sequence integrity in the absence of X-Y recombination. It is unclear whether X-palindromes, which can freely recombine in females, undergo arm-to-arm gene conversion and, if so, at what rate. We generated high-quality sequence assemblies of Mus molossinus and M. spretus X-palindromic regions and compared them with orthologous M. musculus X-palindromes. Our evolutionary sequence comparisons find evidence of X-palindrome arm-to-arm gene conversion at rates comparable to autosomal allelic gene conversion rates in mice. Mus X-palindromes also carry more de

SUBMITTER: Swanepoel CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7306697 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature