Adaptive evolution of non-coding DNA in Drosophila Export

@article{citeulike:355403, abstract = {A large fraction of eukaryotic genomes consists of DNA that is not translated into protein sequence, and little is known about its functional significance. Here I show that several classes of non-coding DNA in Drosophila are evolving considerably slower than synonymous sites, and yet show an excess of between-species divergence relative to polymorphism when compared with synonymous sites. The former is a hallmark of selective constraint, but the latter is a signature of adaptive evolution, resembling general patterns of protein evolution in Drosophila1, 2. I estimate that about 40–70\% of nucleotides in intergenic regions, untranslated portions of mature mRNAs (UTRs) and most intronic DNA are evolutionarily constrained relative to synonymous sites. However, I also use an extension to the McDonald–Kreitman test3 to show that a substantial fraction of the nucleotide divergence in these regions was driven to fixation by positive selection (about 20\% for most intronic and intergenic DNA, and 60\% for UTRs). On the basis of these observations, I suggest that a large fraction of the non-translated genome is functionally important and subject to both purifying selection and adaptive evolution. These results imply that, although positive selection is clearly an important facet of protein evolution, adaptive changes to non-coding DNA might have been considerably more common in the evolution of D. melanogaster.}, author = {Andolfatto, Peter}, citeulike-article-id = {355403}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04107}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04107}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16237443}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=16237443}, day = {20}, doi = {10.1038/nature04107}, issn = {0028-0836}, journal = {Nature}, keywords = {prj\_crevol}, month = {October}, number = {7062}, pages = {1149--1152}, posted-at = {2009-03-18 19:33:37}, priority = {4}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, title = {Adaptive evolution of non-coding DNA in Drosophila}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04107}, volume = {437}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:355403 L3 - citeulike-article-id:355403 N2 - A large fraction of eukaryotic genomes consists of DNA that is not translated into protein sequence, and little is known about its functional significance. Here I show that several classes of non-coding DNA in Drosophila are evolving considerably slower than synonymous sites, and yet show an excess of between-species divergence relative to polymorphism when compared with synonymous sites. The former is a hallmark of selective constraint, but the latter is a signature of adaptive evolution, resembling general patterns of protein evolution in Drosophila1, 2. I estimate that about 40–70% of nucleotides in intergenic regions, untranslated portions of mature mRNAs (UTRs) and most intronic DNA are evolutionarily constrained relative to synonymous sites. However, I also use an extension to the McDonald–Kreitman test3 to show that a substantial fraction of the nucleotide divergence in these regions was driven to fixation by positive selection (about 20% for most intronic and intergenic DNA, and 60% for UTRs). On the basis of these observations, I suggest that a large fraction of the non-translated genome is functionally important and subject to both purifying selection and adaptive evolution. These results imply that, although positive selection is clearly an important facet of protein evolution, adaptive changes to non-coding DNA might have been considerably more common in the evolution of D. melanogaster. IS - 7062 JF - Nature SN - 0028-0836 EP - 1152 TI - Adaptive evolution of non-coding DNA in Drosophila PB - Nature Publishing Group VL - 437 SP - 1149 KW - prj_crevol AU - Andolfatto, Peter PY - 2005/10/20/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04107 ER -