Cloning and comparative characterization of the rIGS regulatory regions in humans and the pygmy chimpanzee Pan paniscus

Abstract

Investigation of randomly cloned genomic and chromosome-specific sequences of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) from different organisms show that different regions of this long repeat unit evolve at different rates. This proves to be true not only with regard to evolutionary variability of transcribed and nontranscribed intergenic (spacer) regions of rDNA. The intergenic spacer (rIGS) of human ribosomal DNA contains both highly variable and more conservative regions with putative regulatory functions. In the present study a comparative analysis of some segments of the rIGS pre-promoter (regulatory) region in human and pygmy chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) was carried out. For these purposes, the corresponding DNA fragments were amplified in PCR with oligonucleotide primers specific to human rIGS and sequenced. Our results show that at the background of substantial structural similarity of these regions in man and chimpanzee, i.e., the presence of highly homologous sequences and similar repetitive units, there are substantial differences between them. These differences are associated with point mutations, insertions, deletions, and complex structural rearrangements.