Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.

We have surveyed the evolutionary trends of mammalian promoters and upstream sequences, utilising large sets of experimentally supported transcription start sites (TSSs). With 30,969 well-defined TSSs from mouse and 26,341 from human, there are sufficient numbers to draw statistically meaningful con...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2006-04-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.0020030
_version_ 1819056865530609664
collection DOAJ
description We have surveyed the evolutionary trends of mammalian promoters and upstream sequences, utilising large sets of experimentally supported transcription start sites (TSSs). With 30,969 well-defined TSSs from mouse and 26,341 from human, there are sufficient numbers to draw statistically meaningful conclusions and to consider differences between promoter types. Unlike previous smaller studies, we have considered the effects of insertions, deletions, and transposable elements as well as nucleotide substitutions. The rate of promoter evolution relative to that of control sequences has not been consistent between lineages nor within lineages over time. The most pronounced manifestation of this heterotachy is the increased rate of evolution in primate promoters. This increase is seen across different classes of mutation, including substitutions and micro-indel events. We investigated the relationship between promoter and coding sequence selective constraint and suggest that they are generally uncorrelated. This analysis also identified a small number of mouse promoters associated with the immune response that are under positive selection in rodents. We demonstrate significant differences in divergence between functional promoter categories and identify a category of promoters, not associated with conventional protein-coding genes, that has the highest rates of divergence across mammals. We find that evolutionary rates vary both on a fine scale within mammalian promoters and also between different functional classes of promoters. The discovery of heterotachy in promoter evolution, in particular the accelerated evolution of primate promoters, has important implications for our understanding of human evolution and for strategies to detect primate-specific regulatory elements.
first_indexed 2024-12-21T13:30:12Z
format Article
id doaj.art-930ad09f08764eb7a1b6717bee9ac00b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1553-7390
1553-7404
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-21T13:30:12Z
publishDate 2006-04-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Genetics
spelling doaj.art-930ad09f08764eb7a1b6717bee9ac00b2022-12-21T19:02:20ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042006-04-0124e30Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.We have surveyed the evolutionary trends of mammalian promoters and upstream sequences, utilising large sets of experimentally supported transcription start sites (TSSs). With 30,969 well-defined TSSs from mouse and 26,341 from human, there are sufficient numbers to draw statistically meaningful conclusions and to consider differences between promoter types. Unlike previous smaller studies, we have considered the effects of insertions, deletions, and transposable elements as well as nucleotide substitutions. The rate of promoter evolution relative to that of control sequences has not been consistent between lineages nor within lineages over time. The most pronounced manifestation of this heterotachy is the increased rate of evolution in primate promoters. This increase is seen across different classes of mutation, including substitutions and micro-indel events. We investigated the relationship between promoter and coding sequence selective constraint and suggest that they are generally uncorrelated. This analysis also identified a small number of mouse promoters associated with the immune response that are under positive selection in rodents. We demonstrate significant differences in divergence between functional promoter categories and identify a category of promoters, not associated with conventional protein-coding genes, that has the highest rates of divergence across mammals. We find that evolutionary rates vary both on a fine scale within mammalian promoters and also between different functional classes of promoters. The discovery of heterotachy in promoter evolution, in particular the accelerated evolution of primate promoters, has important implications for our understanding of human evolution and for strategies to detect primate-specific regulatory elements.http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.0020030
spellingShingle Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
PLoS Genetics
title Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
title_full Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
title_fullStr Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
title_full_unstemmed Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
title_short Heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution.
title_sort heterotachy in mammalian promoter evolution
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.0020030