Thinking about genetic redundancy.
Partial functional redundancy among genes is frequently observed in a wide range of organisms and processes, but the selective value of such redundancy is not immediately apparent. Any fully redundant function should be evolutionarily unstable: unless selection acts to maintain the redundancy it will tend to be lost by mutational drift. I discuss four possible mechanisms by which selection might act to maintain genetic redundancy.
Thomas
J H
JH
Department of Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D017238:Genes, Helminth; D017344:Genes, Insect; D005810:Multigene Family; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics