A new perspective on isochore evolution

Laurent Duret (1) , Adam Eyre-Walker (2, 3) , Nicolas Galtier (4)

1 BPGE - Bioinformatique, phylogénie et génomique évolutive
2 Centre for the Study of Evolution and School of Biological Sciences
3 National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
4 GPIA - Génome, populations, interactions, adaptation

The genomes of mammals and birds show dramatic variation in base composition over large scales, the so called isochore structure of the genome. The origin of isochores is still controversial: various neutral and selectionist models have been proposed – and criticized – since the discovery of isochores in the 1970s. The availability of complete mammalian genomes has yielded new opportunities for addressing this question. In particular, it was recently proposed that (i) the isochore structure is declining in many mammalian groups, and that (ii) GC-content is influenced by local recombination rate, possibly via the mechanism of GC-biased gene conversion. In this article we review the existing support for these two hypotheses, and discuss how they can be combined to provide a new perspective on isochore evolution.

Mots clés: BIASED GENE CONVERSION; GC-CONTENT EVOLUTION; HUMAN GENOME; MAMMALIAN GENOMES; COMPOSITIONAL EVOLUTION; RECOMBINATION; VERTEBRATES; DRIVES; SUBSTITUTION; EQUILIBRIUM

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Laurent Duret, Adam Eyre-Walker, Nicolas Galtier. A new perspective on isochore evolution. Gene, 2006, 385, pp.71-74. ⟨10.1016/j.gene.2006.04.030⟩. ⟨halsde-00340990⟩