Gene conversion in a cytochrome P-450 gene family

The mRNAs encoding the two major phenobarbital-inducible forms of cytochrome P-450 of rat liver, P-450b and P-450e, are remarkably similar (98% homologous) in nucleotide sequence, but the distribution of differences within them is not random. While the 5' halves (approximately equal to 1 kilobase) appear to be identical, there are 36 divergent residues in the remaining sequences of the two mRNAs, with 14 differences residing in two short highly divergent segments, which in the P-450e gene are located within exon 7. DNA sequence analysis of portions of a number of P-450b/e-related genes provides strong evidence that at least one of the short divergent segments is the result of a recent gene conversion event between an ancestor to the cytochrome P-450e gene and a related donor P-450 gene of unknown function. The sequence data also suggest that extensive gene conversion has occurred within all the members of this gene family in the region including exons 7 and 8 and the intron between them, with a resultant homogenization of those sequences relative to other portions of the genes. Genomic Southern blotting analysis demonstrates that the presence of an apparent "constant" region in the 5' halves of the P-450b and P-450e mRNAs does not reflect a rearrangement in somatic cells of a germ-line DNA configuration. It is therefore proposed that it, too, is a consequence of a very recent gene conversion event between ancestors of the genes encoding both proteins or of an unequal crossing-over between them. On the basis of these and other data we propose that gene conversion represents an important evolutionary mechanism for the generation of related cytochrome P-450 isozymes in which regions of extraordinary sequence similarity and dissimilarity are intermixed. The gene conversion mechanism would account for some of the overlaps in substrate specificities of distantly related P-450s as well as for substantial differences in catalytic properties between closely related members of the same P-450 protein family.