are ribosomal dna clusters rearrangement hotspots a case study in the genus mus (rodentia, muridae)集群是核糖体dna重组热点的案例研究属亩(啮齿目,鼠科).pdfVIP

Cazaux et al. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011, 11:124 /1471-2148/11/124 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Are ribosomal DNA clusters rearrangement hotspots? A case study in the genus Mus (Rodentia, Muridae) * Benoîte Cazaux , Josette Catalan, Frédéric Veyrunes, Emmanuel JP Douzery and Janice Britton-Davidian Abstract Background: Recent advances in comparative genomics have considerably improved our knowledge of the evolution of mammalian karyotype architecture. One of the breakthroughs was the preferential localization of evolutionary breakpoints in regions enriched in repetitive sequences (segmental duplications, telomeres and centromeres). In this context, we investigated the contribution of ribosomal genes to genome reshuffling since they are generally located in pericentromeric or subtelomeric regions, and form repeat clusters on different chromosomes. The target model was the genus Mus which exhibits a high rate of karyotypic change, a large fraction of which involves centromeres. Results: The chromosomal distribution of rDNA clusters was determined by in situ hybridization of mouse probes in 19 species. Using a molecular-based reference tree, the phylogenetic distribution of clusters within the genus was reconstructed, and the temporal association between rDNA clusters, breakpoints and centromeres was tested by maximum likelihood analyses. Our results highlighted the following features of rDNA cluster dynamics in the genus Mus: i) rDNA clusters showed extensive diversity in number between species and an almost exclusive pericentromeric location, ii) a strong association between rDNA sites and centromeres was retrieved which may be related to their shared constraint of concerted evolution, iii) 24% of the observed breakpoints mapped near an rDNA cluster, and iv) a substantial rate of rDNA clus