Fig. 2: EIF4A3 gene family expansion and sequence resolution.

a, Multiple sequence alignment shows EIF4A3 amino acid differences between the human, Mhudiblu_PPA and chimpanzee assembled paralogues, and sequences of other great apes. A polymorphic 18-bp motif VNTR is located at the 5′ UTR of nonhuman primate EIF4A3 and accounts for most of the differences between various isoforms. A phylogenetic tree is built from neutral sequences of EIF4A3 paralogues using Bayesian phylogenetic inference. This analysis is conducted using BEAST2 software. Numbers on each major node denote estimated divergence time. Ma, million years ago. The blue error bar on each node indicates the 95% confidence interval of the age estimation. Bayesian posterior probabilities are reported using asterisks for nodes with posterior probability >99%. b, FISH on metaphase chromosomes and interphase nuclei with human probe WI2-3271P14 confirms an EIF4A3 subtelomeric expansion of chromosome 17 in bonobo and chimpanzee relative to human, gorilla and orangutan.