The impact of gene duplication on evolution is as ubiquitous as point mutation, but this realization is not yet reflected in our quantitative models of population genetics. In this Commentary article, we explore the implications of such models of gene duplication, specifically expanding on our previous work. We lay down a framework for understanding the impact of gene duplications on the evolut...

There are approximately 25 000 species in the division Teleostei and most are believed to have arisen during a relatively short period of time ca. 200 Myr ago. The discovery of 'extra' Hox gene clusters in zebrafish (Danio rerio), medaka (Oryzias latipes), and pufferfish (Fugu rubripes), has led to the hypothesis that genome duplication provided the genetic raw material necessary for the teleos...

Gene duplication is probably the most important mechanism for generating new gene functions. However, gene duplication has been overlooked as a potentially effective way to resolve genetic conflicts. Here, we analyze the entire set of Drosophila melanogaster nuclearly encoded mitochondrial duplicate genes and show that both RNA- and DNA-mediated mitochondrial gene duplications exhibit an unexpe...

The duplication of DNA sequences contributes to genomic plasticity and is known to be one of the key factors responsible for evolution. The mechanisms underlying these rare events, which have been frequently mentioned by authors performing genomic analysis, have not yet been completely elucidated. These mechanisms were approached here in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using a positive sele...

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD and BMD) are progressive muscle wasting disorders with an X linked recessive mode of inheritance. We have surveyed 120 unrelated patients with DMD or BMD for gene duplications using a series of genomic probes from within the DMD/BMD gene locus. In three patients, two with DMD and one with BMD, a duplicated region within the DMD/BMD locus has been sh...

Gene duplication is thought to play an important role in the co-option of existing protein functions to new physiological pathways. The globin superfamily of genes provides an excellent example of the kind of physiological versatility that can be attained through the functional and regulatory divergence of duplicated genes that encode different subunit polypeptides of the tetrameric hemoglobin ...

The visual pigments of vertebrates evolved about 500 million years ago, before the major evolutionary step of the development of jaws. Four spectrally distinct classes of cone opsin evolved through gene duplication, followed by the rod opsin class that arose from the duplication of the middle-wave-sensitive cone opsin. All four cone classes are present in many extant teleost fish, reptiles and ...

Nucleotide binding site leucine-rich repeats (NBS-LRR) disease resistance proteins play an important role in plant defense against pathogen attack. A number of recent studies have been carried out to identify and characterize NBS-LRR gene families in many important plant species. In this study, we identified NBS-LRR gene family comprising of 1015 NBS-LRRs using highly stringent computational me...

In Drosophila melanogaster, the Acp70A gene, which is involved in the postmating reactions of the female, is a single-copy gene. However, in Drosophila subobscura, the gene is duplicated and both copies are transcribed. To study the molecular evolution of the duplication, a 2.1-kb fragment encompassing both copies of the duplication was sequenced for 10 lines of D. subobscura and one line of Dr...

Plants have substantially higher gene duplication rates compared with most other eukaryotes. These plant gene duplicates are mostly derived from whole genome and/or tandem duplications. Earlier studies have shown that a large number of duplicate genes are retained over a long evolutionary time, and there is a clear functional bias in retention. However, the influence of duplication mechanism, p...