SEQUENCE ORGANIZATION AND EVOLUTION, IN ALL EXTANT WHALEBONE WHALES, OF A DNA SATELLITE WITH TERMINAL CHROMOSOME LOCALIZATION

A heavy (GC rich) DNA satellite with terminal chromosomal localization is characteristic for all mysticete (whalebone whale) genomes. Sequences of 58 repeats of the satellite were compared in all ten extant mysticete species. In three families comprising eight species, the typical repeat length was 422(421) bp. In two species, the northern right whale and the bowhead, of family Balaenidae (right whales) the repeats were much longer, typically ca. 900 and ca. 1200 bp. In all species the repeats were composed of a unique portion of constant length (212/211 bp), and a subrepeat portion, the length of which was variable. The evolutionary rigidity of the unique portion of the repeat is contrasted by the pronounced length variability of the subrepeat portion. The subrepeat portion consists essentially of 6 bp motifs, such that length differences are usually in multiples of 6 bp. The motif TTAGGG constituted 35% 50% of the subrepeats. Comparison between the unique portion of the 58 sequenced repeats revealed that the repeats divided into two primary groups, one comprising the two balaenids, the other including the eight remaining species. The mean difference between the two groups averaged 8.4%. In this sequence comparison the repeats of the pygmy right whale constituted a group that was separated from repeats of the other species. In all other cases repeats were intermingled to some extent between species. Comparison of individual repeats suggests that the unique portion evolves in concert, at a slow rate. A neighbor-joining comparison between the consensuses of all species suggests that the unique portion of the repeats evolves at a somewhat different rate in different lineages.