title: Epigenetic changes and repositioning determine the evolutionary fate of duplicated genes.
abstract: Consideration of epigenetic silencing, perhaps by DNA methylation, led to an epigenetic complementation (EC) model for evolution by gene duplication (Rodin and Riggs (2003) J. Mol. Evol., 56, 718-729). This and subsequent work on genome-wide analyses of gene duplicates in several eukaryotic species pointed to a fundamental link between localization in the genome, epigenetic regulation of expression, and the evolutionary fate of new redundant gene copies, which can be either non- or neo-functionalization. Our main message in this report is that repositioning of a new duplicate to an ectopic site epigenetically alters its expression pattern, and concomitantly the rate and direction of mutations. Furthermore, comparison of syntenic vs. non-syntenic pairs of gene duplicates of different age unambiguously indicates that repositioning saves redundant gene duplicates from pseudogenization and hastens their evolution towards a new development-time and tissue-specific pattern of function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Biology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA 91010, USA.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Rodin
authors.forename: D V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Parkhomchuk
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Riggs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020131:Genes, Duplicate; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D011544:Pseudogenes