Intrachromosomal colocalization strengthens co-expression, co-modification and evolutionary conservation of neighboring genes

BACKGROUND: Gene order and location in chromosomes of species are non-random. Neighboring gene pairs tend to display some similarities, such as co-expression and co-modification. However, the contribution of linear proximity, spatial proximity, and evolutionary proximity to these similarities remain unclear, together with whether the presence of several types of proximity can strengthens the similarities. RESULTS: In this study, we investigated the properties of three kinds of colocalized gene pairs: intrachromosomal colocalized gene pairs, always-neighboring gene pairs, and evolutionary neighboring gene pairs. Our analysis showed that (1) Different types of colocalized genes differentially contribute to co-expression, co-modifications and conservation across species; (2) Intrachromosomal colocalization can strengthen co-expression and co-modification of neighboring gene pairs and their conservation across species; (3) The combination of the three kinds of colocalization can lead to the strongest co-modification and is most strongly conserved across species. (4) Colocalized gene pairs are indicative of phylogenetic relationships and whole genome duplications (WGDs). CONCLUSIONS: These results provide valuable clues for future efforts to understand the characteristics of colocalized gene pairs and how the neighborhood affects their interactions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4844-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.