%0 Journal Article %J Gene %D 2005 %T Convergent loss of an anciently duplicated, functionally divergent RH2 opsin gene in the fugu and Tetraodon pufferfish lineages %A Neafsey, D. E. %A Hartl, D. L. %K Amino Acid Sequence %K Base Sequence %K DNA/chemistry/genetics %K Fish Proteins/genetics %K Gene Duplication %K Gene Expression %K Genetic Variation %K Molecular Sequence Data %K Multigene Family/genetics %K Phylogeny %K Polymorphism, Genetic %K Rod Opsins/*genetics %K Sequence Alignment %K Sequence Analysis, DNA %K Sequence Homology, Amino Acid %K Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid %K Species Specificity %K Takifugu/*genetics %K Tetraodontiformes/*genetics %X

We describe the complete opsin gene families from the sequenced fugu and Tetraodon pufferfish genomes. We report the convergent loss of function of an anciently duplicated, functionally divergent RH2 or "green-sensitive" opsin gene in both pufferfish lineages, designated RH2-2. In fugu, RH2-2 apparently ceased to function very recently following a transposon-induced deletion that truncated the N-terminal 115 amino acids from the translated protein. Although a lack of frameshift or nonsense mutations in the fugu RH2-2 pseudogene suggests that the gene was lost very recently in this lineage, we were unable to detect any evidence of a selective sweep associated with the fixation of the truncated allele from population data. Interspecific comparison of the remaining fugu RH2-2 coding sequence paradoxically indicates that the gene was under strong purifying selection until the truncation occurred.

%B Gene %V 350 %P 161-71 %8 May 9 %@ 0378-1119 (Print)0378-1119 (Linking) %G eng %M 15820147 %! GeneGene