SEQUENCE AND EVOLUTION OF THE BLUE CONE PIGMENT GENE IN OLD AND NEW-WORLD PRIMATES

The sequences of the blue cone photopigments in the talapoin monkey (M iopithecus talapoin), an Old World primate, and in the marmoset (Calli thrix jacchus), a New World monkey, are presented. Both genes are comp osed of 5 exons separated by 4 introns. In this respect, they are iden tical to the human blue gene, and intron sizes are also similar. Based on the level of amino acid identity, both monkey pigments are members of the S branch of pigments. Alignment of these sequences with the hu man gene requires the insertion/deletion of two separate codons in exo n 1. The silent site divergence between these primate blue genes indic ates a separation of the Old and New World primate lineages around 43 million years ago. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.