A Rapidly Evolving Homeobox at the Site of a Hybrid Sterility Gene

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 282; no. 5393; pp. 1501 - 1504
• Main Authors: Ting, Chau-Ti, Tsaur, Shun-Chern, Wu, Mao-Lien, Chung-I Wu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 20.11.1998; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Amino Acid Substitution; Amino acids; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Classical genetics, quantitative genetics, hybrids; Cloning, Molecular; DNA binding proteins; Drosophila; Drosophila - genetics; Drosophila - physiology; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Drosophila Proteins; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Exons; Fertility; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes; Genes, Homeobox; Genes, Insect; Genetic aspects; Genetics; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution; Heredity; Homeodomain Proteins - chemistry; Homeodomain Proteins - genetics; Homeodomain Proteins - physiology; Hybridity; Hybridization, Genetic; Individualized Instruction; Infertility, Male; Insect Proteins - chemistry; Insect Proteins - genetics; Insect Proteins - physiology; Insects; Introns; Invertebrata; Laboratory Procedures; Literary Devices; Male; Male animals; Males; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleotides; Reproduction; Selection, Genetic; Sibling species; Siblings; Speciation; Transcripts (Written Records); Reproductive isolation; Nucleotide sequence; Spermatogenesis; Insecta; Drosophila; Biological evolution; Hybrid; Homology; Drosophilidae; Molecular evolution; Arthropoda; Homeotic gene; Interspecific hybridization; Genetics; Male sterility; Invertebrata; Diptera; Speciation
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5393.1501

The homeodomain is a DNA binding motif that is usually conserved among diverse taxa. Rapidly evolving homeodomains are thus of interest because their divergence may be associated with speciation. The exact site of the Odysseus (Ods) locus of hybrid male sterility in Drosophila contains such a homeobox gene. In the past half million years, this homeodomain has experienced more amino acid substitutions than it did in the preceding 700 million years; during this period, it has also evolved faster than other parts of the protein or even the introns. Such rapid sequence divergence is driven by positive selection and may contribute to reproductive isolation.