Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 14, 741-753, Copyright © 1997 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
JM Gleason and JR Powell
The period (per) locus has received much attention in molecular evolution
studies because it is one of the best studied "behavioral genes" and
because it offers insight into the evolution of repetitive sequences. We
studied most of the coding region of per in Drosophila willistoni and
confirmed previously observed patterns of conservation and divergence among
distantly related species. Five regions are so highly diverged that they
cannot be aligned, whereas a region encompassing the PAS domain is very
conserved. Structural and nucleotide polymorphism patterns in the
willistoni group are not the same as those observed in previously studied
species. We sequenced the region homologous to the highly polymorphic
threonine-glycine repeat of D. melanogaster in multiple strains of D.
willistoni, as well as in other members of willistoni group, and found an
unusual amount of conservation in this region. However, the next
nonconserved region downstream in the sequence is quite variable and
polymorphic for the number of repeated glycines. The glycine codon usage is
significantly different in this glycine repeat as compared to other parts
of the gene. We were able to plot the directionality of change in the
glycine repeat region onto a phylogeny and find that the addition of
glycines is the general trend with the diversification of the willistoni
group.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Interspecific and intraspecific comparisons of the period locus in the Drosophila willistoni sibling species
Department of Biology, Yale University, USA. jennifer.gleason@st- andrews.ac.uk
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