Hsp27 gene in Drosophila ananassae subgroup was split by a recently acquired intron

In Drosophila, heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) is a critical single-copy intron-free nuclear gene involved in the defense response against fungi and bacteria, and is a regulator of adult lifespan. In the present study, 33 homologous Hsp27 nucleotide sequences from different Drosophila species were amplified by PCR and reverse transcription PCR, and the phylogenetic relationships were analysed using neighbour-joining, maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods. The phylogenetic topologies from analysis with different algorithms were similar, suggesting that the Hsp27 gene was split by a recently acquired intron during the evolution of the Drosophila ananassae subgroup.