The spider monkey psi eta-globin gene and surrounding sequences: recent or ancient insertions of LINEs and SINEs?

A phylogenetic comparison of the psi eta-globin DNA sequence of the spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) to orthologous sequences from other primates provides evidence for an evolutionarily recent (less than 17 million years ago (MYA] insertion of a truncated L1 LINE (long interspersed repetitive element). An Alu SINE (short interspersed element), found 3 kb downstream of the poly(A) addition site, arose less than 40 MYA subsequent to the divergence of platyrrhinies (New World monkeys) from catarrhines (humans, apes, and Old World monkeys). Another Alu element, which appears in the catarrhines 588 bp upstream from the psi eta gene, is absent in Ateles, thus placing its possible time of insertion between 20 and 40 MYA. Alignment of the Ateles psi eta sequence with orthologous hominoid sequences (M. M. Miyamoto, J. L. Slightom, and M. Goodman, 1987, Science 238: 369-373) provides unequivocal evidence against the view (J. H. Schwartz, 1987, "The Red Ape: Orang-utans and Human Origins," Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA) that the orangutan forms a monophyletic group with human. Furthermore, a critical analysis of potential sources of homoplasy (i.e., parallel evolution) reaffirms a Homo-Pan monophyletic clade (Miyamoto et al., 1987). Reconstruction of primate psi eta sequence phylogeny suggests Ateles and Aotus shared a common ancestor only 16 +/- 1.5 MYA. Finally, the results show a mutation rate of 1.7 +/- 0.2 x 10(-9) mutations site-1 year-1 during the evolution of the Ateles psi eta-globin region since the divergence of catarrhines from platyrrhinies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)