Ancient allelism at the cytosolic chaperonin-alpha-encoding gene of the zebrafish

The T-complex protein 1, TCP1, gene codes for the CCT-alpha subunit of the group II chaperonins. The gene was first described in the house mouse, in which it is closely linked to the T locus at a distance of approximately 11 cM from the Mhc. In the zebrafish, Danio rerio, in which the T homolog is linked to the class I Mhc loci, the TCP1 locus segregates independently of both the T and the Mhc loci. Despite its conservation between species, the zebrafish TCP1 locus is highly polymorphic. In a sample of 15 individuals and the screening of a cDNA library, 12 different alleles were found, and some of the allelic pairs were found to differ by up to nine nucleotides in a 275-bp-long stretch of sequence. The substitutions occur in both translated and untranslated regions, but in the former they occur predominantly at synonymous codon sites. Phylogenetically, the alleles fall into two groups distinguished also by the presence or absence of a 10-bp insertion/deletion in the 3' untranslated region. The two groups may have diverged as long as 3.5 mya, and the polymorphic differences may have accumulated by genetic drift in geographically isolated populations.