↓ Skip to main content

Accelerated Evolution of the Prdm9 Speciation Gene across Diverse Metazoan Taxa

Overview of attention for article published in PLoS Genetics, December 2009
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (95th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

Mentioned by

blogs
2 blogs
twitter
1 X user
facebook
1 Facebook page
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
googleplus
1 Google+ user
f1000
1 research highlight platform

Citations

dimensions_citation
255 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
280 Mendeley
citeulike
6 CiteULike
connotea
1 Connotea
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Accelerated Evolution of the Prdm9 Speciation Gene across Diverse Metazoan Taxa
Published in
PLoS Genetics, December 2009
DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000753
Pubmed ID
Authors

Peter L. Oliver, Leo Goodstadt, Joshua J. Bayes, Zoë Birtle, Kevin C. Roach, Nitin Phadnis, Scott A. Beatson, Gerton Lunter, Harmit S. Malik, Chris P. Ponting

Abstract

The onset of prezygotic and postzygotic barriers to gene flow between populations is a hallmark of speciation. One of the earliest postzygotic isolating barriers to arise between incipient species is the sterility of the heterogametic sex in interspecies' hybrids. Four genes that underlie hybrid sterility have been identified in animals: Odysseus, JYalpha, and Overdrive in Drosophila and Prdm9 (Meisetz) in mice. Mouse Prdm9 encodes a protein with a KRAB motif, a histone methyltransferase domain and several zinc fingers. The difference of a single zinc finger distinguishes Prdm9 alleles that cause hybrid sterility from those that do not. We find that concerted evolution and positive selection have rapidly altered the number and sequence of Prdm9 zinc fingers across 13 rodent genomes. The patterns of positive selection in Prdm9 zinc fingers imply that rapid evolution has acted on the interface between the Prdm9 protein and the DNA sequences to which it binds. Similar patterns are apparent for Prdm9 zinc fingers for diverse metazoans, including primates. Indeed, allelic variation at the DNA-binding positions of human PRDM9 zinc fingers show significant association with decreased risk of infertility. Prdm9 thus plays a role in determining male sterility both between species (mouse) and within species (human). The recurrent episodes of positive selection acting on Prdm9 suggest that the DNA sequences to which it binds must also be evolving rapidly. Our findings do not identify the nature of the underlying DNA sequences, but argue against the proposed role of Prdm9 as an essential transcription factor in mouse meiosis. We propose a hypothetical model in which incompatibilities between Prdm9-binding specificity and satellite DNAs provide the molecular basis for Prdm9-mediated hybrid sterility. We suggest that Prdm9 should be investigated as a candidate gene in other instances of hybrid sterility in metazoans.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 280 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 13 5%
Brazil 4 1%
Germany 2 <1%
United Kingdom 2 <1%
Spain 2 <1%
Norway 1 <1%
Austria 1 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Other 3 1%
Unknown 250 89%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 77 28%
Student > Ph. D. Student 74 26%
Student > Bachelor 26 9%
Student > Master 22 8%
Professor > Associate Professor 18 6%
Other 41 15%
Unknown 22 8%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 166 59%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 58 21%
Computer Science 6 2%
Medicine and Dentistry 6 2%
Mathematics 3 1%
Other 15 5%
Unknown 26 9%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 December 2017.
All research outputs
#1,873,229
of 25,461,852 outputs
Outputs from PLoS Genetics
#1,492
of 8,970 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,007
of 177,297 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLoS Genetics
#4
of 68 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,461,852 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,970 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 177,297 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 68 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.