Summary
Plasmodium species exhibit the unprecedented situation of distinct, stage-specific rRNA sequences. We present an analysis of two pairs of sequences of the small rRNA subunit (Plasmodium falciparum andPlasmodium berghei) and show that these genes do not evolve independently and that in fact their evolution is dominated by gene conversion. This analysis also shows that no extensive stage-specific sequences are conserved in the two species, thus rendering unlikely that the existence of stage-specific rRNA genes results from a requirement for distinct rRNA types.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Colomer-Gould V, Enea V (1990)Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis CS gene structure: implication for the evolution of the CS repeats. Mol Biochem Parasitol (in press)
Dams E, Hendriks L, Van de Peer Y, Neefs J-M, Smits G, Vandebempt I, De Wachter R (1988) Compilation of small ribosomal subunit RNA sequences. Nucleic Acids Res [Suppl] 16: r87-r174
Di Giovanni L, Cochrane AH, Enea V (1990) On the evolutionary history of the circumsporioite protein in plasmodia. Exp Parasitol 70: 373–381
Enea V, Galinski M, Schmidt EC, Gwadz R, Nussenzweig RS (1986) Evolutionary profile of the circumsporozoite gene of thePlasmodium cynomolgi complex. J Mol Biol 188: 721–726
Fitch WM (1970) Distinguishing homologous from analogous proteins. Syst Zool 19: 99–113
Fitch WM (1977) On the problem of generating the most parsimonious tree. Am Nat 111: 223–257
Fitch WM, Margoliash E (1967) Construction of phylogenetic trees. Science 155: 279–284
Galinski MR, Arnot DE, Cochrane AH, Barnwell JW, Nusseenzweig RS, Enea V (1987) The circumsporozoite gene of thePlasmodium cynomolgi CS complex. Cell 48: 311–319
Gunderson JH, Sogin ML, Wollett G, Hollingdale M, de la Cruz VF, Waters AP, McCutchan TF (1987) Structurally distinct, stage-specific ribosomes occur inPlasmodium. Science 238: 933–937
Holmquist R, Miyamoto MM, Goodman M (1988) Analysis of higher-primate phylogeny from transversion differences in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA by Lake's methods of evolutionary parsimony and operator metrics. Mol Biol Evol 5: 217–236
Lake JA (1987a) A rate-independent technique for analysis of nucleic acid sequences: evolutionary parsimony. Mol Biol Evol 4: 167–191
Lake JA (1987b) Determining evolutionary distances from highly diverged nucleic acid sequences: operator metrics. J Mol Evol 26: 59–73
Maeda N, Smithies O (1986) The evolution of multigene families: human haptoglobin genes. Annu Rev Genet 20: 81–108
McCutchan TF (1986) The ribosomal genes ofPlasmodium. Int Rev Cytol 99: 295–309
McCutchan TF, de la Cruz VF, Lal AA, Gunderson JH, Elwood HJ, Sogin ML (1988) Primary sequences of two small subunit ribosomal RNA genes fromPlasmodium falciparum. Mol Biochem Parasitol 28: 63–68
Neefs J-M, Van de Peer Y, Hendriks L, De Wachter R (1990) Compilation of small ribosomal subunit RNA sequences. Nucleic Acids Res 18: 2237–2318
Sogin ML, Gunderson JH (1988) Structural diversity of eukaryotic small subunit ribosomal RNA. Annals of the NY Acad Sci, pp 125–139
Waters AP, Syin C, McCutchan TF (1989) Developmental regulation of stage-specific ribosome populations inPlasmodium. Nature 342: 438–441
Wesseling JG, Snijders PJF, van Someren P, Jansen J, Smits MA, Schoenmakers JGG (1989) Stage-specific expression and genomic organization of the actin genes of the malaria parasitePlasmodium falciparum. Mol Biochem Parasitol 35: 167–176
Wernsdorfer WH (1980) In: Kreier JP (ed) Malaria, vol I.. Academic Press, New York, pp 1–93
Woese CR (1987a) Bacterial evolution. Microbiol Rev 51: 221–271
Woese CR (1987b) Macroevolution in the microscopic world. In: Patterson C (ed) Molecules and morphology in evolution: conflict or compromise? Cambridge University Press, pp 177–202
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Enea, V., Corredor, V. The evolution of plasmodial stage-specific rRNA genes is dominated by gene conversion. J Mol Evol 32, 183–186 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515391
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515391