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Positive selection drives accelerated evolution of mosquito salivary genes associated with blood‐feeding
Author(s) -
Arcà B.,
Struchiner C. J.,
Pham V. M.,
Sferra G.,
Lombardo F.,
Pombi M.,
Ribeiro J. M. C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1111/imb.12068
Subject(s) - biology , gene , housekeeping gene , negative selection , saliva , positive selection , balancing selection , evolutionary biology , genetics , salivary gland , selection (genetic algorithm) , anopheles gambiae , immune system , immunology , allele , genome , gene expression , malaria , biochemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science
The saliva of bloodsucking animals contains dozens to hundreds of proteins that counteract their hosts’ haemostasis, inflammation and immunity. It was previously observed that salivary proteins involved in haematophagy are much more divergent in their primary sequence than those of housekeeping function, when comparisons were made between closely related organisms. While this pattern of evolution could result from relaxed selection or drift, it could alternatively be the result of positive selection driven by the intense pressure of the host immune system. We investigated the polymorphism of five different genes associated with blood‐feeding in the mosquito A nopheles gambiae and obtained evidence in four genes for sites with signatures of positive selection. These results add salivary gland genes from bloodsucking arthropods to the small list of genes driven by positive selection.