How yeasts evolve Publication of four more genomes confirm
disputed whole genome duplication theory By Cathy Holding
The publication in Nature this week of four yeast genomic
sequences seems to have confirmed the controversial idea,
introduced in 1997, that whole genome duplication occurred
in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The very high-coverage sequences-with virtually no gaps-of
four species of yeast reveal evidence of tandem gene
duplication, segmental duplication (coduplication of tens to
hundreds of genes), and whole genome duplication, said study
coauthor Giles Fischer, who worked with Bernard Dujon and
others at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique
in France. "One of the major forces that has driven
evolution is gene duplication followed by gene loss,"
Fischer said, "but we did not find only one single mechanism
of gene duplication, we found three."
"During the last 2 or 3 years, about 10 novel yeast
sequences have been completed, and now the comparison of
these sequences has brought one conclusion which is very
clear," said André Goffeau, a professor at the Institut des
Sciences Vie, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, who
wrote an accompanying News and Views article. The proposal
of whole genome duplication in S. cerevisiae-first put
forward by Ken Wolfe, professor at the department of
Genetics, Trinity College Dublin-"is now fully proven
without doubt," Goffeau told The Scientist.
Read the rest at The Scientist
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Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.