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The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families

One of the major aims of contemporary evolutionary biology is the understanding of the current pattern of biological diversity. This involves, first, the description of character distribution at various nodes of the phylogenetic tree of life and, second, the functional explanation of such changes. T...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Markov, Gabriel V., Sommer, Ralf J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22779028
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/490894
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author Markov, Gabriel V.
Sommer, Ralf J.
author_facet Markov, Gabriel V.
Sommer, Ralf J.
author_sort Markov, Gabriel V.
collection PubMed
description One of the major aims of contemporary evolutionary biology is the understanding of the current pattern of biological diversity. This involves, first, the description of character distribution at various nodes of the phylogenetic tree of life and, second, the functional explanation of such changes. The analysis of character distribution is a powerful tool at both the morphological and molecular levels. Recent high-throughput sequencing approaches provide new opportunities to study the genetic architecture of organisms at the genome-wide level. In eukaryotes, one overarching finding is the absence of simple correlations of gene count and biological complexity. Instead, the domain architecture of proteins is becoming a central focus for large-scale evolutionary innovations. Here, we review examples of the evolution of novelty in conserved gene families in insects and nematodes. We highlight how in the absence of whole-genome duplications molecular novelty can arise, how members of gene families have diversified at distinct mechanistic levels, and how gene expression can be maintained in the context of multiple innovations in regulatory mechanisms.
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spelling pubmed-33883342012-07-09 The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families Markov, Gabriel V. Sommer, Ralf J. Int J Evol Biol Review Article One of the major aims of contemporary evolutionary biology is the understanding of the current pattern of biological diversity. This involves, first, the description of character distribution at various nodes of the phylogenetic tree of life and, second, the functional explanation of such changes. The analysis of character distribution is a powerful tool at both the morphological and molecular levels. Recent high-throughput sequencing approaches provide new opportunities to study the genetic architecture of organisms at the genome-wide level. In eukaryotes, one overarching finding is the absence of simple correlations of gene count and biological complexity. Instead, the domain architecture of proteins is becoming a central focus for large-scale evolutionary innovations. Here, we review examples of the evolution of novelty in conserved gene families in insects and nematodes. We highlight how in the absence of whole-genome duplications molecular novelty can arise, how members of gene families have diversified at distinct mechanistic levels, and how gene expression can be maintained in the context of multiple innovations in regulatory mechanisms. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012 2012-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC3388334/ /pubmed/22779028 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/490894 Text en Copyright © 2012 G. V. Markov and R. J. Sommer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Markov, Gabriel V.
Sommer, Ralf J.
The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title_full The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title_fullStr The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title_full_unstemmed The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title_short The Evolution of Novelty in Conserved Gene Families
title_sort evolution of novelty in conserved gene families
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22779028
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/490894
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