Here we report the peculiarities of molecular evolution and divergence of paralogous heterochromatic clusters of the testis- expressed X-linked Stellate and Y-linked Su(Ste) tandem repeats. It was suggested that Stellate and Su(Ste) clusters affecting male fertility are the amplified derivatives of the unique euchromatic gene betaCK2tes encoding the putative testis-specific beta-subunit of protein kinase CK2. The putative Su(Ste)-like evolutionary intermediate was detected on the Y chromosome as an orphon outside of the Su(Ste) cluster. The orphon shows extensive homology to the Su(Ste) repeat, but contains several Stellate-like diagnostic nucleotide substitutions, as well as a 10-bp insertion and a 3' splice site of the first intron typical of the Stellate unit. The orphon looks like a pseudogene carrying a drastically damaged Su(Ste) open reading frame (ORF). The putative Su(Ste) ORF, as compared with the Stellate one, carries numerous synonymous substitutions leading to the major codon preference. We conclude that Su(Ste) ORFs evolved on the Y chromosome under the pressure of translational selection. Direct sequencing shows that the efficiency of concerted evolution between adjacent repeats is 5-10 times as high in the Stellate heterochromatic cluster on the X chromosome as that in the Y-linked Su(Ste) cluster, judging by the frequencies of nucleotide substitutions and single-nucleotide deletions.

Objective To investigate whether an outbreak of Actinobacillus lignieresii was caused by one or multiple strains. Methods Nine isolates of A. lignieresii were obtained from the lymph nodes of 15 affected cattle from two farms to determine whether a single strain was involved. An enterobacterial repetitive insertion consensus sequence (ERIC) PCR was used for genotyping, and the repeats‐in‐toxin genes were analysed by PCR and sequencing. Results Isolates from the two farms belonged to two and three genotypes, with a total of four genotypes detected. Genes of the apxICABD operons of some strains had deletions in the apxIA (~697 bp) and in the apxID (~187 bp) genes. The toxin gene deletions and the ERIC PCR patterns suggested the involvement of different A. lignieresii genotypes. Conclusion There was no evidence that a unique genotype was associated with actinobacillosis on the two farms, confirming that this disease was associated with other contributing factors.