Evolution of the autosomal chorion cluster inDrosophila. IV. The HawaiianDrosophila: Rapid protein evolution and constancy in the rate of DNA divergence

Summary Autosomal chorion geness18, s15, ands19 are shown to diverge at extremely rapid rates in closely related taxa of HawaiianDrosophila. Their nucleotide divergence rates are at least as fast as those of intergenic regions that are known to evolve more extensively between distantly related species. Their amino acid divergence rates are the fastest known to date. There are two nucleotide replacement substitutions for every synonymous one. The molecular basis for observed length and substitution mutations is analyzed. Length mutations are strongly associated with direct repeats in general, and with tandem repeats in particular, whereas the rate for an average transition is twice that for an average transversion.The DNA sequence of the cluster was used to construct a phylogenetic tree for five taxa of the Hawaiian picture-winged species group ofDrosophila. Assignment of observed base substitutions occurring in various branches of the tree reveals an excess of would-be homoplasies in a centrally localized 1.8-kb segment containing thes15 gene. This observation may be a reflection of ancestral excess polymorphisms in the segment. The chorion cluster appears to evolve at a constant rate regardless of whether the central 1.8-kb segment is included or not in the analysis. Assuming that the time of divergence ofDrosophila grimshawi and theplanitibia subgroup coincides with the emergence of the island of Kauai, the overall rate of base substitution in the cluster is estimated to be 0.8% million years, whereas synonymous sites are substituted at a rate of 1.2%/million years.