Mutation and evolution of microsatellite loci in Neurospora

The patterns of mutation and evolution at 13 microsatellite loci were studied in the filamentous fungal genus Neurospora. First, a detailed investigation was performed on five microsatellite loci by sequencing each microsatellite, together with its nonrepetitive flanking regions, from a set of 147 individuals from eight species of Neurospora. To elucidate the genealogical relationships among microsatellite alleles, repeat number was mapped onto trees constructed from flanking-sequence data. This approach allowed the potentially convergent microsatellite mutations to be placed in the evolutionary context of the less rapidly evolving flanking regions, revealing the complexities of the mutational processes that have generated the allelic diversity conventionally assessed in population genetic studies. In addition to changes in repeat number, frequent substitution mutations within the microsatellites were detected, as were substitutions and insertion/deletions within the flanking regions. By comparing microsatellite and flanking-sequence divergence, clear evidence of interspecific allele length homoplasy and microsatellite mutational saturation was observed, suggesting that these loci are not appropriate for inferring phylogenetic relationships among species. In contrast, little evidence of intraspecific mutational saturation was observed, confirming the utility of these loci for population-level analyses. Frequency distributions of alleles within species were generally consistent with the stepwise mutational model. By comparing variation within species at the microsatellites and the flanking-sequence, estimated microsatellite mutation rates were approximately 2500 times greater than mutation rates of flanking DNA and were consistent with estimates from yeast and fruit flies. A positive relationship between repeat number and variance in repeat number was significant across three genealogical depths, suggesting that longer microsatellite alleles are more mutable than shorter alleles. To test if the observed patterns of microsatellite variation and mutation could be generalized, an additional eight microsatellite loci were characterized and sequenced from a subset of the same Neurospora individuals.