Gene duplication and concerted evolution of the GPDH locus in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

DNA polymorphisms at alpha-Gpdh locus of Drosophila melanogaster in Korean population

Restriction site variation in 18-kb region including the Gpdh (sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) locus has been assessed in 27 isofemale lines, 12 lines from the Chounan population and 15 lines from the Pusan population in Korea. Of the 25 restriction sites that were scored, 5 sites were polymorphic (20.0%): PstI (-2.35), XbaI (-1.7), HindIII (0.0), HindIII (+0.25), and PstI (+5.7). Two insertions (I) and three deletions (D) were detected. All the restriction sites and length polymorphisms were located in introns and outside regions of the Gpdh structure gene, the area from -7.0 site to -5.5 site. The proportion of segregating nucleotides, p, for all 27 lines was 0.019 and the estimated heterozygosity per nucleotide pair, was 0.013. Sixteen kinds of restriction map haplotypes of all lines analyzed were detected. Few lines were identical at the restriction map level. The estimated haplotype diversity, h, was 0.968. The haplotype diversity (0.997) of GpdhFF bearing chromosomes was slightly higher than that (0.982) of GpdhSS chromosomes. Analysis for a linkage disequilibria between the polymorphism also showed that HindIII (+0.25) vs. I (a) and PstI (-2.35) vs. D (a) have relatively high level of the linkage disequilibria. There were no significant relationship between restriction site polymorphism and GPDH activity in 27 second-chromosome lines; however, there was an apparent difference in the effect of length variation on GDPH activity. The activity of deletion-bearing lines was lower than that of deletion-free lines, while there was no effect of insertion on activity. Duplication of Gpdh was observed in about one-third of the 27 isofemale lines. The duplication-bearing lines in both populations had higher levels of GPDH activity and GPDH CRM than duplication-free lines. In a further investigation of the duplication structure, the duplication of Korean populations was shown to have a similar structure to other populations investigated (Symonds and Gibson, 1992; Takano et al., 1989).

Characterizing allelic proteins for genome mapping in maize

Mapping cDNA probes in order to construct genetic linkage maps is becoming a widespread strategy for genome analysis and gene isolation, particularly in cultivated plant species. Nevertheless, almost all cDNAs reveal two or more unlinked loci, making it difficult to identify the gene(s) actually expressed. In a highly polymorphic species, such as maize, two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) of proteins may circumvent this limitation. With the analysis of various segregating populations, we previously showed that the apparent position shifts of proteins on the 2-D gels are monogenic and codominant. In this paper we compared allelic proteins on the basis of their high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) profile and partial amino acid sequences. In a sample of 20 position shifts, the allelic proteins appeared to be similar in all but one case, strongly suggesting that polymorphism of structural genes is involved. Thus 2-D PAGE could prove to be a useful tool for genome mapping: when a cDNA probe detects several loci, a position shift of the encoded protein will allow the identification of the gene translated in the organ considered.

Distribution of polymorphic gene duplication at the Gpdh locus in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

The glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH, E.C. 1.1.1.8) gene of Drosophila melanogaster contains a tandem duplication of a 4.5-kb-long DNA fragment. Survey of the Gpdh gene region by the Southern blot analysis revealed the following features of this gene duplication: (1) The duplication was not observed in chromosome lines that carry In(2L)t, a cosmopolitan chromosomal inversion in this species. The duplication and the inversion are in linkage disequilibrium. (2) The duplication is polymorphic in the Japan and US natural populations examined. Its frequency is 0.26 on an average in In(2L)t-free chromosomes. (3) Triplication is absent or has not become frequent in the populations surveyed. Possible evolutionary factors of this duplication polymorphism are discussed.

Restriction site variation, gene duplication, and the activity of sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster

Restriction site variation in a 25-kb region including the sn-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gpdh) locus has been assessed in 29 single female D. melanogaster lines from the Cardwell (Australia, QLD) population. The Gpdh locus was duplicated in about one-third of the lines, although the duplication was incomplete and lacked exons 1 and 2. There was no restriction site variation in the duplicated region. Three insertions were found in the gene region but only one affected GPDH activity. The lines with the duplication had higher levels of GPDH activity and protein amount than did nonduplicated lines. This effect was also observed in lines extracted from two other Australian populations. The duplication is shown to have a similar structure in each population investigated and is also present in populations from China and Africa. It is suggested that the effect of the duplication on GPDH activity, which might be due to structural factors affecting transcription at the Gpdh locus, could account for the worldwide distribution of the duplication.