Deletion Of Ultraconserved Elements Yields Viable Mice

It is widely believed that the most evolutionarily conserved DNA sequences
in the human genome have been preserved because of their functional
importance and that their removal would thus have a devastating effect on
the organism. To ascertain this, Nadav Ahituv, Edward Rubin, and
colleagues
removed from the mouse genome four ultraconserved elements-sequences of
200 base pairs or longer that are
100% identical among human, mouse, and rat. They found that the mice
lacking these elements are viable, fertile, and show no apparent
abnormalities.


This completely unexpected finding indicates that extreme levels of DNA
sequence conservation are not necessarily indicative of an indispensable
functional nature.



Citation: Ahituv N, Zhu Y, Visel A, Holt A, Afzal V, et al. (2007)
Deletion of ultraconserved elements yields viable mice. PLoS Biol 5(9):
e234.
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050234.

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