Author:
Kucharski R.,Maleszka J.,Maleszka R.
Abstract
Although gene duplication is seen as the main path to evolution of new functions, molecular mechanisms by which selection favours the gain versus loss of newly duplicated genes and minimizes the fixation of pseudo-genes are not well understood. Here, we investigate in detail a duplicate honeybee gene
obp11
belonging to a fast evolving insect gene family encoding odorant binding proteins (OBPs). We report that
obp11
is expressed only in female bees in rare antennal
sensilla basiconica
in contrast to its tandem partner
obp10
that is expressed in the brain in both females and males (drones). Unlike all other
obp
genes in the honeybee,
obp11
is methylated suggesting that functional diversification of
obp11
and
obp10
may have been driven by an epigenetic mechanism. We also show that increased methylation in drones near one donor splice site that correlates with higher abundance of a transcript variant encoding a truncated OBP11 protein is one way of controlling its contrasting expression. Our data suggest that like in mammals and plants, DNA methylation in insects may contribute to functional diversification of proteins produced from duplicated genes, in particular to their subfunctionalization by generating complementary patterns of expression.
Funder
Australian Research Council
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
23 articles.
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