A frameshift addition causes silencing of the delta-globin gene in an old world monkey, an anubis (Papio doguera).

A delta-globin gene of an anubis, Papio doguera, was cloned, and the nucleotide sequence of a region of about 2,000 bp including the gene was determined. In comparison with that of pSP3, a delta-globin clone from the gene library of a normal Japanese, the anubis delta-globin gene showed one base addition in the second exon at the codon for amino acid 55, generating a termination codon at the new 59th codon. The other differences found in the region analyzed were not considered to affect expression of the delta-globin gene. Therefore, it was concluded that this frameshift addition was at least one of the causes of silencing of the delta-globin gene in the anubis. In addition, from the sequence divergence in the delta-globin gene, the period of this silencing was estimated to be at most 4 million years, and the divergence of anubis occurred at most 30 million years ago.