Multiple origins of a frameshift insertion in a mitochondrial gene in birds and turtles.

摘要: BACKGROUND During evolutionary history, molecular mechanisms have emerged to cope with deleterious mutations. Frameshift insertions in protein-coding sequences are extremely rare because they disrupt the reading frame. There a few known examples of their correction through translational frameshifting, process that enables ribosomes skip nucleotides during translation regain proper Corrective frameshifting has been proposed act on single base pair insertion at position 174 mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 gene (ND3) observed several turtles and birds. However, relatively sparse taxonomic representation hampered our understanding evolution this vertebrates. RESULTS Here, we analyzed 87,707 ND3 from 10,309 vertebrate taxa reveal history its common genomic characteristics. We confirmed only appears birds reconstructed it evolved independently both groups complex patterns gains losses. The was almost all bird orders but absent members diverse Passeriformes. found strong conservation surrounding birds, which implies enforces structural constraints could be involved correction. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates frameshifts can widespread retained for millions years if embedded conserved sequence theme.