Conservation of segmental variants of satellite DNA of Mus musculus in a related species: Mus spretus (original) (raw)

Nature volume 285, pages 47–49 (1980)Cite this article

Abstract

There has been much recent discussion on the biological function of the highly-repetitive DNAs (satellite DNAs) of higher organisms1–9, that have several curious features of sequence organization. First, some satellite sequences show a high degree of conservation between related species10–15. Second, there is independent evolution of ‘type B’ segments (sequence variants) within a block of tandem repeats16. The majority of the Mus musculus satellite DNA can be cut to produce a type A pattern with either _Eco_RII or _Ava_II (ref. 8). However, digestion of M. musculus satellite with other enzymes produces a limit series of fragments from only part of the total satellite (type B segment)16. To understand the significance of the segmental sequence variants, it is necessary to characterize their distribution between individual chromosomes of a genome18 and between closely related genomes. We report here the distribution of type A and B patterns in the two closely related species, _Mus musculus and Mus spretus_19,20. The data show that the genome of M. spretus contains homologous sequences that are organized into the same type B segments as M. musculus, except for one type B segment that is under-represented in M. spretus. From a knowledge of the genetic distance and hybrid fertility between these species19,20, we are able to exclude one of the proposed biological roles for these particular genomic components.

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  1. Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EH, UK
    S. D. M. Brown & G. A. Dover

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  1. S. D. M. Brown
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  2. G. A. Dover
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Brown, S., Dover, G. Conservation of segmental variants of satellite DNA of Mus musculus in a related species: Mus spretus.Nature 285, 47–49 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285047a0

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