[son Pseudogenes do not contain five repeating elements of the region of complete tandem repeats present in the homologous sequence of the son gene]

Abstract

Recently we have published a sequence of the coding region of the son gene, containing at least six areas of the tandem repeats [V.V. Bliskovsky, F.B. Berdichevsky, A.V. Tkachenko, M.E. Belova, I.M. Chumakov--Molecularnaya biologiya, 1992, V. 26. P. 793-806; V.V. Bliskovsky, A.V. Kirillov, V.M. Zacharyev, I.M. Chumakov--Molecularnaya biologiya, 1992, V. 26. P. 807-812]. The presence of several areas of tandem repeats with different nucleotide sequences of the repeated elements within one and the same gene supports the proposition that genomic localization of the sequence influences its duplication. Here we present a nucleotide sequence of the son pseudogene isolated as the result of hybridization screening of a human genomic library using the sequence of the son gene as a probe. The comparison of the gene and the pseudogene nucleotide sequences shows that the sequence of pseudogene does not contain five repeated units of an area of the tandem repeats, which are presented in the homology sequence of the son gene. Because the pseudogene was probably generated by the reverse son-gene transcript insertion to the genome, and so the nucleotide sequences of the coding region of the gene and the sequence of the pseudogene were identical at this moment, the differences between the gene and the pseudogene are the results of their evolution after the generation of the pseudogene. Possible factors, influenced the son gene and the son pseudogene evolution are discussed.