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GC Content Evolution of the Human and Mouse Genomes: Insights from the Study of Processed Pseudogenes in Regions of Different Recombination Rates

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Abstract

Processed pseudogenes are generated by reverse transcription of a functional gene. They are generally nonfunctional after their insertion and, as a consequence, are no longer subjected to the selective constraints associated with functional genes. Because of this property they can be used as neutral markers in molecular evolution. In this work, we investigated the relationship between the evolution of GC content in recently inserted processed pseudogenes and the local recombination pattern in two mammalian genomes (human and mouse). We confirmed, using original markers, that recombination drives GC content in the human genome and we demonstrated that this is also true for the mouse genome despite lower recombination rates. Finally, we discussed the consequences on isochores evolution and the contrast between the human and the mouse pattern.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks go to Tim Greenland and Gabriel Marais for discussions and comments on the manuscript. We thank the Centre de Calcul de l’IN2P3 for providing computer resources. This work was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientique and the Claude Bernard University-Lyon.

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  1. Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Université Claude Bernard—Lyon 1, 16 rue Raphael Dubois, 69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Adel Khelifi, Julien Meunier, Laurent Duret & Dominique Mouchiroud

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  1. Adel Khelifi
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  2. Julien Meunier
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  3. Laurent Duret
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  4. Dominique Mouchiroud
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Correspondence to Adel Khelifi.

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Khelifi, A., Meunier, J., Duret, L. et al. GC Content Evolution of the Human and Mouse Genomes: Insights from the Study of Processed Pseudogenes in Regions of Different Recombination Rates. J Mol Evol 62, 745–752 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-005-0186-0

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