Year: 2022

ONGOING GENE DUPLICATION. "Spontaneous duplication of regions of intermediate size (kbp–Mbp) is a common process, and experimental determinations of these rates in different eubacteria, Caenorhabditis elegans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Drosophila melanogaster suggest that they are in the range of 10−7 to 10−3/gene/cell division." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

FIRST POSSIBLE FATE of duplicate gene: "counterselection against individuals with an extra copy caused by a duplication cost." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

SECOND POSSIBLE FATE of duplicate gene: "genetic loss of the extra copy by recombination caused by duplication instability." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

THIRD POSSIBLE FATE of duplicate gene: "nonfunctionalization, in which random mutations accumulate in the gene and inactivate it." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

FOURTH POSSIBLE FATE of duplicate gene: "subfunctionalization, in which initially neutral mutations accumulate in twinned genes to divide the original gene’s work between them." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

FIFTH POSSIBLE FATE of duplicate gene: "neofunctionalization, which involves the generation of a novel function by coding sequence changes in one of the gene copies." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

UNKNOWN FUNCTIONS. "Most de novo genes identified in human and primates remain uncharacterized." https://lnkd.in/dPqZs3m View in LinkedIn

FEW WELL CHARACTERIZED. "Several clearly defined cases of de novo gene emergence have been attested by extensive functional characterization but most identified genes remain uncharacterized." https://lnkd.in/e3rTkFh View in LinkedIn

NEW GENES IN BRAIN. "Several studies found that human or hominoid de novo genes are most abundantly expressed in brain tissue, which at least hints at a role of these new genes in brain evolution." https://lnkd.in/dPqZs3m View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend with the theme of double fertilization in flowering plants. The male pollen delivers two non-motile sperm cells to the female egg via the very dynamic pollen tube, where one fuses with the egg to create the embryo, while the other fuses with the central cells to produce the endosperm which feeds the growing embryo. This complex event is called double fertilization, and works, in part, to prevent self-fertilization. https://lnkd.in/dXVTT6X View in LinkedIn