Premium
DNA variations within the sea urchin Otx gene enhancer
Author(s) -
Yamamoto Takashi,
Kawamoto Rie,
Fujii Takayoshi,
Sakamoto Naoaki,
Shibata Tatsuo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2007.10.013
Subject(s) - enhancer , sea urchin , hemicentrotus , biology , indel , gene , genetics , dna , evolutionary biology , strongylocentrotus purpuratus , single nucleotide polymorphism , gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , genotype
We performed both intra‐ and interspecific comparisons of the Otx gene in the sea urchin to investigate DNA variations within the enhancer elements. Intraspecific comparisons within Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus showed that indel variations were rare within the Otx enhancer, whereas SNP variations were found uniformly within the whole test region. A similar pattern of DNA variation was observed in comparisons between closely related species. On the other hand, both nucleotide substitution and indel variations were at high levels between distant species. Additionally, the regions corresponding to the Otx enhancer in two related species showed substantial activities during development. Our results suggest the possibility that a stabilizing selection has occurred during the evolution of the Otx gene enhancer in the sea urchin that maintains its expression pattern.