Gene conversions are under purifying selection in the carcinoembryonic antigen immunoglobulin gene families of primates.

The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) family contains a large number of glycoproteins belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily. Here, we investigate whether the gene conversions occurring between primate CEA-related genes are adaptive. Our results show that primate CEA-related genes are subject to frequent and repeated gene conversion events. Furthermore, gene conversions occur most frequently between nearby genes sharing similar sequences, are not more frequent in Ig-like V-type 1 domains than in the Ig-like C2-type 1 domains and dN/dS ratio tests shown that both these domains evolve either neutrally or under purifying selection. Our results therefore suggest that CEA-related genes evolve under purifying selection and the frequent gene conversion events we observed likely represent selectively neutral events between genes having similar sequences and functions.