The decline of isochores in mammals: an assessment of the GC content variation along the mammalian phylogeny.

@article{belle04, abstract = {Whether isochores, the large-scale variation of the GC content in mammalian genomes, are being maintained has recently been questioned. It has been suggested that GC-rich isochores originated in the ancestral amniote genome but that whatever force gave rise to them is no longer effective and that isochores are now disappearing from mammalian genomes. Here we investigated the evolution of the GC content of 41 coding genes in 6 to 66 species of mammals by estimating the ancestral GC content using a method which allows for different rates of substitution between sites. We found a highly significant decrease in the GC content during early mammalian evolution, as well as a weaker but still significant decrease in the GC content of GC-rich genes later in at least three groups of mammals: primates, rodents, and carnivores. These results are of interest because they confirm the recently suggested disappearance of GC-rich isochores in some mammalian genomes, and more importantly, they suggest that this disappearance started very early in mammalian evolution.}, address = {Centre for the Study of Evolution-School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK. bape6@sussex.ac.uk}, author = {Belle, E. M. and Duret, L. and Galtier, N. and Walker, Eyre A. }, citeulike-article-id = {313797}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2587-x}, issn = {0022-2844}, journal = {J Mol Evol}, keywords = {evolution, gc, genome\_evolution, island, isochore}, month = {June}, number = {6}, pages = {653--660}, posted-at = {2005-09-08 17:09:52}, priority = {2}, title = {The decline of isochores in mammals: an assessment of the GC content variation along the mammalian phylogeny.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2587-x}, volume = {58}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - belle04 L3 - citeulike-article-id:313797 N2 - Whether isochores, the large-scale variation of the GC content in mammalian genomes, are being maintained has recently been questioned. It has been suggested that GC-rich isochores originated in the ancestral amniote genome but that whatever force gave rise to them is no longer effective and that isochores are now disappearing from mammalian genomes. Here we investigated the evolution of the GC content of 41 coding genes in 6 to 66 species of mammals by estimating the ancestral GC content using a method which allows for different rates of substitution between sites. We found a highly significant decrease in the GC content during early mammalian evolution, as well as a weaker but still significant decrease in the GC content of GC-rich genes later in at least three groups of mammals: primates, rodents, and carnivores. These results are of interest because they confirm the recently suggested disappearance of GC-rich isochores in some mammalian genomes, and more importantly, they suggest that this disappearance started very early in mammalian evolution. IS - 6 JF - J Mol Evol SN - 0022-2844 AD - Centre for the Study of Evolution-School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK. bape6@sussex.ac.uk EP - 660 TI - The decline of isochores in mammals: an assessment of the GC content variation along the mammalian phylogeny. VL - 58 SP - 653 KW - evolution KW - gc KW - genome_evolution KW - island KW - isochore AU - Belle, EM AU - Duret, L AU - Galtier, N AU - Walker, Eyre PY - 2004/June// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2587-x ER -