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Mutations in the paralogous human alpha-globin genes yielding identical hemoglobin variants.

ABSTRACT: The human alpha-globin genes are paralogues, sharing a high degree of DNA sequence similarity and producing an identical alpha-globin chain. Over half of the alpha-globin structural variants reported to date are only characterized at the amino acid level. It is likely that a fraction of these variants, with phenotypes differing from one observation to another, may be due to the same mutation but on a different alpha-globin gene. There have been very few previous examples of hemoglobin variants that can be found at both HBA1 and HBA2 genes. Here, we report the results of a systematic multicenter study in a large multiethnic population to identify such variants and to analyze their differences from a functional and evolutionary perspective. We identified 14 different Hb variants resulting from identical mutations on either one of the two human alpha-globin paralogue genes. We also showed that the average percentage of hemoglobin variants due to a HBA2 gene mutation (alpha2) is higher than the percentage of hemoglobin variants due to the same HBA1 gene mutation (alpha1) and that the alpha2/alpha1 ratio varied between variants. These alpha-globin chain variants have most likely occurred via recurrent mutations, gene conversion events, or both. Based on these data, we propose a nomenclature for hemoglobin variants that fall into this category.

SUBMITTER: Moradkhani K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2690850 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mutations in the paralogous human alpha-globin genes yielding identical hemoglobin variants.

Moradkhani Kamran K Préhu Claude C Old John J Henderson Shirley S Balamitsa Vera V Luo Hong-Yuan HY Poon Man-Chiu MC Chui David H K DH Wajcman Henri H Patrinos George P GP

Annals of hematology 20081016 6

The human alpha-globin genes are paralogues, sharing a high degree of DNA sequence similarity and producing an identical alpha-globin chain. Over half of the alpha-globin structural variants reported to date are only characterized at the amino acid level. It is likely that a fraction of these variants, with phenotypes differing from one observation to another, may be due to the same mutation but on a different alpha-globin gene. There have been very few previous examples of hemoglobin variants t ...[more]

PMID: 18923834

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Project description:The functional divergence of duplicated genes is thought to play an important role in the evolution of new developmental and physiological pathways, but the role of positive selection in driving this process remains controversial. The objective of this study was to test whether amino acid differences among triplicated alpha-globin paralogs of the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) are attributable to a relaxation of purifying selection or to a history of positive selection that has adapted the gene products to new or modified physiological tasks. In each rodent species, the two paralogs at the 5'-end of the alpha-globin gene cluster (HBA-T1 and HBA-T2) are evolving in concert and are therefore identical or nearly identical in sequence. However, in each case, the HBA-T1 and HBA-T2 paralogs are distinguished from the third paralog at the 3'-end of the gene cluster (HBA-T3) by multiple amino acid substitutions. An analysis of genomic sequence data from several rodent species revealed that the HBA-T3 genes of Rattus and Peromyscus originated via independent, lineage-specific duplication events. In the independently derived HBA-T3 genes of both species, a likelihood analysis based on a codon-substitution model revealed that accelerated rates of amino acid substitution are attributable to positive directional selection, not to a relaxation of purifying selection. As a result of functional divergence among the triplicated alpha-globin genes in Rattus and Peromyscus, the red blood cells of both rodent species contain a mixture of functionally distinct alpha-chain hemoglobin isoforms that are predicted to have different oxygen-binding affinities. In P. maniculatus, a species that is able to sustain physiological function under conditions of chronic hypoxia at high altitude, the coexpression of distinct hemoglobin isoforms with graded oxygen affinities is expected to broaden the permissible range of arterial oxygen tensions for pulmonary/tissue oxygen transport.

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Mutations in the paralogous human alpha-globin genes yielding identical hemoglobin variants.

Publications

Mutations in the paralogous human alpha-globin genes yielding identical hemoglobin variants.

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