Month: September 2022

CHIMERIC GENES. "Exons and domains could be recombined to produce new chimeric genes. Chimeric proteins formed by gene recombination have been found in many organisms since their discovery in the LDL receptor gene, including yeast, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, mammals, and plants, and are estimated to have contributed ~19% of new exons in eukaryotes." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

WILD MUSICAL CHAIRS. "In addition, retroposed sequences may jump into or near existing genes and recruit existing exons, or be recruited into an existing coding sequence." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

GENE SPLITTING. "New gene structures may be formed by splitting existing genes. Wang et al., for example, found that gene duplication is an intermediate stage in an evolutionary process leading to gene fission." https://lnkd.in/g5PeHKe View in LinkedIn

FRAMESHIFT ORIGINS. "Okamura et al. demonstrated that frameshift mutations often generate new coding sequences, finding that 470 human gene duplicates that had done so. Xue et al. found that Epstein-Barr virus contains an early gene which undergoes frequent frameshifts, probably to combat host immunity." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

DE NOVO GENES. “New gene structures may arise from previously non-coding DNA. Chen et al. were the first to show that antifreeze proteins, which bind and halt the growth of ice crystals in the blood of some polar fishes, were created by amplification of microsatellite DNA." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

NEW FUNCTIONS. "Divergence in alternative splicing patterns between duplicate genes can generate distinct transcripts that produce noncoding RNAs or polypeptides with slightly or entirely different functions and rapidly alter duplicate gene structures and functions." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA CONVERSION. "A number of de novo genes originating from non-coding regions have been identified in Drosophila, humans, primates, murine rodents, Protozoa, yeast, rice as well as virus." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL MECHANISM. "Similar to strict de novo gene origination, horizontal gene transfer, the exchange of genes between genomes from distantly related taxa, can immediately add new genes and functions to a genome. Horizontal gene transfer is a major mechanism for the addition of new genes to prokaryotic genomes, but has also been reported in a number of eukaryotic organisms including plants, insects and fungi." https://lnkd.in/dvpUaYF View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the gene life cycle. This is at the heart of Darwinian evolution, although even the idea of genes was unknown to Darwin. New genetic material is the engine of diversity and fitness. Nature has found numerous inventive ways to freshen its genetic information content, in order to provide the organism with new phenotypes with which to conquer new niches. And very often, the timeframes involved in new gene generation and fixation are considerable. View in LinkedIn

MAINSTREAM DOGMA. "From all of the prior observations we can safely conclude that meiotic sex in eukaryotes is the rule. It is very widespread, old, and clearly of major evolutionary importance." https://lnkd.in/deZ8DED View in LinkedIn