Selective sweep of a newly evolved sperm-specific gene in Drosophila

Dmitry I. Nurminsky (), Maria V. Nurminskaya, Daniel De Aguiar and Daniel L. Hartl
Additional contact information
Dmitry I. Nurminsky: Harvard University
Maria V. Nurminskaya: Tufts University School of Medicine
Daniel De Aguiar: Harvard University
Daniel L. Hartl: Harvard University

Nature, 1998, vol. 396, issue 6711, 572-575

Abstract: Abstract The pattern of genetic variation across the genome of Drosophila melanogaster is consistent with the occurrence of frequent ‘selective sweeps’, in which new favourable mutations become incorporated into the species so quickly that linked alleles can ‘hitchhike’ and also become fixed1. Because of the hitchhiking of linked genes, it is generally difficult to identify the target of any putative selective sweep. Here, however, we identify a new gene in D. melanogaster that codes for a sperm-specific axonemal dynein subunit. The gene has a new testes-specific promoter derived from a protein-coding region in a gene encoding the cell-adhesion protein annexin X (AnnX), and it contains a new protein-coding exon derived from an intron in a gene encoding a cytoplasmic dynein intermediate chain (Cdic). The new transcription unit, designated Sdic (for sperm-specific dynein intermediate chain), has been duplicated about tenfold in a tandem array. Consistent with the selective sweep of this gene, the level of genetic polymorphism near Sdic is unusually low. The discovery of this gene supports other results that point to the rapid molecular evolution of male reproductive functions2,3,4.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/25126 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6711:d:10.1038_25126

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/25126

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().