The X chromosome generates and receives more new genes by retrotransposition than autosomes By
Cathy Holding
of the autosome.
In January 30 Science, J. Emerson and colleagues at the University of Chicago examined gene movement
and observed that a disproportionate number
chromosome, ignored the Y, and relocated to autosomes to function in a male
relocated to the X chromosome (Science, 303:537-540, 2004).
"This was really unexpected," Manyuan Long, the team leader, told The Scientist. "An excessive
number of genes show a trend to avoid being linked to the X chromosome and have evolved new
male-specific expression patterns on the autosome. On the other hand, genes move to the X
chromosome to avoid
he said.
In 2002, the team reported unexpected unidirectional gene movement from the X chromosome to
autosomes in fruit flies. In this study, the team screened the human genome databases for annotated
genes with functional retrotranspositions on different chromosomes and found 94 functional
retroposed gene pairs that were not on the same chromosome. Similar screening in the mouse revealed
105 such gene pairs. Their analyses showed that the X chromosome generates an almost 300% excess of
retrogenes compared with autosomes in humans, and 305% in the mouse.
gene is trying to abandon the X chromosome for an autosome, what is the point of having the X and
the Y? This is completely different to previous speculation."
Read the rest at The Scientist.com biomedcentral.com01Open ↗
Comment: By and by, Y goes awry: why?
Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.