Genes constantly evolve Drosophila fixed coding regions
duplicate and degenerate to rapidly create new genes By
Cathy Holding
A novel gene genesis mechanism suggests that the Drosophila
genome is highly flexible and that even seemingly fixed
genes are constantly evolving. This new research shows that
genes are continuously created and altered by gene fission
in a process of retroposed duplication followed by partial
degeneration.
In the April 4 Nature Genetics, Wen [censored] and colleagues in
the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of
Chicago looked for young genes-those that had originated
within the last 1 or 2 million years-to observe the early
stages of gene creation.
The team identified a group of genes with additional members
and locations in members of the species
Drosophilamelanogaster subgroup that diverged less than a
million years ago. Each subspecies has a parental gene
sequence on one chromosome and different numbers of new
copies on different chromosomes. The new copies are very
young genes in evolutionary terms and so all the
intermediate steps from the original parental sequence to
the newest copies are visible. The gene family was named 'monkey-
king' after the mythical Chinese character who could
transform his hairs into offspring.
Read the Rest at The Scientist dot com
biomedcentral.com01Open ↗
Comment: Loved the Japanese series 'Monkey' (am humming the
theme music as we speak
🙂
Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.