The origin of new genes: glimpses from the young and old.
Genome data have revealed great variation in the numbers of genes in different organisms, which indicates that there is a fundamental process of genome evolution: the origin of new genes. However, there has been little opportunity to explore how genes with new functions originate and evolve. The study of ancient genes has highlighted the antiquity and general importance of some mechanisms of gene origination, and recent observations of young genes at early stages in their evolution have unveiled unexpected molecular and evolutionary processes.
Long
Manyuan
M
Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. mlong@uchicago.edu
Betrán
Esther
E
Thornton
Kevin
K
Wang
Wen
W
D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005796:Genes; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D014960:X Chromosome