Rapid duplication and loss of genes coding for the alpha chains of hemoglobin.

Rapid cycles of gene duplication and loss appear to have been going on in the region coding for the alpha chain of adult hemoglobin. This is inferred from restriction endonuclease analysis of the alpha gene region in five species of apes, whose common ancestor lived about 10 million years ago. Because all five species resemble humans in having duplicate alpha genes, the duplicate state of this region is probably at least as old as the common ancestor of all these species. However, the alpha polypeptides within these species are about 10 times more alike than is expected for 10 million years of divergent evolution. Thus, the alpha polypeptides within each species have been evolving in concert. Changes in gene number have also taken place in the apes. Whereas the predominant number of alpha genes per chromosome is two for most species, it is three for chimpanzees. Concerted evolution appears also to have occurred, but far more slowly, in the region coding for the adult beta-like chains of hemoglobin. Consideration of the structural differences between the two regions leads to the hypothesis that the lengths of the noncoding regions are important determinants of the rates at which genes are gained and lost by intergenic recombination.

[1]  R. Hardison,et al.  The linkage arrangement of four rabbit β-like globin genes , 1979, Cell.

[2]  N. Rosenthal,et al.  The structure and transcription of four linked rabbit β-like globin genes , 1979, Cell.

[3]  N. Arnheim,et al.  The genetic behaviour of a cloned mouse ribosomal DNA segment mimics mouse ribosomal gene evolution. , 1979, Journal of molecular biology.

[4]  J. Maizel,et al.  The evolution and sequence comparison of two recently diverged mouse chromosomal β-globin genes , 1979, Cell.

[5]  A. V. van Ooyen,et al.  Comparison of total sequence of a cloned rabbit beta-globin gene and its flanking regions with a homologous mouse sequence. , 1979, Science.

[6]  A. Jeffreys.  DNA sequence variants in the G γ-, A γ-, δ- and β-globin genes of man , 1979, Cell.

[7]  T. Maniatis,et al.  Characterisation of deletions which affect the expression of fetal globin genes in man , 1979, Nature.

[8]  Y W Kan,et al.  beta 0 thalassemia, a nonsense mutation in man. , 1979, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  Y. Kan,et al.  Organization of the alpha-globin genes in the Chinese alpha-thalassemia syndromes. , 1979, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[10]  R T Schimke,et al.  Gene amplification and drug resistance in cultured murine cells. , 1978, Science.

[11]  S. Orkin.  The duplicated human alpha globin genes lie close together in cellular DNA. , 1978, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[12]  T. Maniatis,et al.  The isolation and characterization of linked δ- and β-globin genes from a cloned library of human DNA , 1978, Cell.

[13]  J. Seidman,et al.  Comparison of cloned mouse alpha- and beta-globin genes: conservation of intervening sequence locations and extragenic homology. , 1978, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[14]  Y. Kan,et al.  Polymorphism of DNA sequence adjacent to human beta-globin structural gene: relationship to sickle mutation. , 1978, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  R. Williamson,et al.  Analysis of the β-δ-globin gene loci in normal and hb lepore DNA: Direct determination of gene linkage and intergene distance , 1978, Cell.

[16]  J. T. Wilson,et al.  Insertion of synthetic copies of human globin genes into bacterial plasmids. , 1978, Nucleic acids research.

[17]  R. V. Skavaril,et al.  Maintenance of genetic homogeneity in systems with multiple genomes. , 1976, Genetical research.

[18]  G. P. Smith,et al.  Evolution of repeated DNA sequences by unequal crossover. , 1976, Science.

[19]  L. Garrick,et al.  Rat haemoglobin heterogeneity. Two structurally distinct alpha chains and functional behaviour of selected components. , 1975, The Biochemical journal.

[20]  T. Maniatis,et al.  Nucleotide sequence of the rightward operator of phage lambda. , 1975, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  E. Russell,et al.  GENETICS OF MOUSE HEMOGLOBINS * , 1974, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[22]  Richard T. Jones,et al.  MULTIPLICITY OF THE HEMOGLOBIN α CHAINS IN DOGS AND VARIATIONS AMONG RELATED SPECIES * , 1974 .

[23]  J. Clegg.  HORSE HEMOGLOBIN POLYMORPHISM , 1974, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[24]  P. E. Nute,et al.  MULTIPLE HEMOGLOBIN α‐CHAIN LOCI IN MONKEYS, APES, AND MAN * , 1974 .

[25]  P. C. Wensink,et al.  A comparison of the ribosomal DNA's of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus mulleri: the evolution of tandem genes. , 1972, Journal of molecular biology.

[26]  E. Southern,et al.  Base Sequence and Evolution of Guinea-pig α-Satellite DNA , 1970, Nature.

[27]  Vincent M. Sarich,et al.  Immunological Time Scale for Hominid Evolution , 1967, Science.

[28]  G. Stamatoyannopoulos,et al.  Triplicated alpha-globin loci in humans. , 1980, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[29]  J R Roth,et al.  Gene duplication in bacteria: alteration of gene dosage by sister-chromosome exchanges. , 1979, Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology.

[30]  L. Kedes,et al.  Histone genes and histone messengers. , 1979, Annual review of biochemistry.

[31]  M. Goodman,et al.  The Amino Acid Sequences of the Two Main Components of Adult Hemoglobin from Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) , 1978, Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift fur physiologische Chemie.

[32]  L. Hood,et al.  The organization, expression, and evolution of antibody genes and other multigene families. , 1975, Annual review of genetics.