Enzyme-coding genes as molecular clocks: The molecular evolution of animal alpha-amylases |
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Authors: | Donal A Hickey Bernhard F Benkel Poppo H Boer Yves Genest Sumaia Abukashawa Gerard Ben-David |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, K1N 6N5 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
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Abstract: | Summary We constructed a cDNA library for the beetle,Tribolium castaneum. This library was screened using a cloned amylase gene fromDrosophila melanogaster as a molecular probe. Beetle amylase cDNA clones were isolated from this bank, and the nucleotide sequence was obtained for a cDNA clone with a coding capacity for 228 amino acids. Both the nucleotide sequence and predicted amino acid sequence were compared to our recent results forD. melanogaster alpha-amylases, along with published sequences for other alpha-amylases. The results show that animal alpha-amylases are highly conserved over their entire length. A borader comparison, which includes plant and microbial alpha-amylase sequences, indicates that parts of the gene are conserved between prokaryotes, plants, and animals. We discuss the potential importance of this and other enzyme-coding genes for the construction of molecular phylogenies and for the study of the general question of molecular clocks in evolution. |
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Keywords: | Molecular clock Alpha-amylase Tribolium castaneum cDNA Amino acid sequence Gene evolution |
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