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Nucleic Acids Research, 2002, Vol. 30, No. 13 2906-2910
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Overlapping of MINK and CHRNE gene loci in the course of mammalian evolution

Ippeita Dan1,2,*, Norinobu M. Watanabe2, Eriko Kajikawa2, Takafumi Ishida3, Akhilesh Pandey4 and Akihiro Kusumi2

1 Division of Food Engineering, National Food Research Institute, 2-1-12, Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8642, Japan, 2 Kusumi Membrane Organizer Project, ERATO, JST, Department of Biological Science, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan, 3 Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan and 4 McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and Department of Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA

Overlapping of genes, especially in an anti-parallel fashion, is quite rare in eukaryotic genomes. We have found a rare instance of exon overlapping involving CHRNE and MINK gene loci on chromosome 17 in humans. CHRNE codes for the {varepsilon} subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR{varepsilon}) whereas MINK encodes a serine/threonine kinase belonging to the GCK family. To elucidate the evolutionary trail of this gene overlapping event, we examined the genomes of a number of primates and found that mutations in the polyadenylation signal of the CHRNE gene in early hominoids led to the overlap. Upon extending this analysis to genomes of other orders of placental mammals, we observed that the overlapping occurred at least three times independently during the course of mammalian evolution. Because CHRNE and MINK are differentially expressed, the potentially hazardous mutations responsible for the exon overlap seem to have escaped evolutionary pressures by differential temporo-spatial expression of the two genes.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Division of Food Engineering, National Food Research Institute, 2-1-12, Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8642, Japan. Tel: +81 298 38 8030; Fax: +81 298 38 8122; Email: dan{at}nfri.affrc.go.jp +AB070507–AB070511, AB070513–AB070520


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