Is optimal gene order impossible?
Recent evidence suggests that yeast genes encoding proteins that are present in the same protein complex tend to be linked and to be co-expressed. More generally, we found that genes that are close to each other in the protein interaction network tend to be linked more often than expected and are often co-expressed. Unexpectedly, we found that linked genes in network proximity have unusually high recombination rates. Because high recombination rates are associated with high rates of genome re-organization, our findings might explain why the clustering of genes in proximity in the network is such a weak effect: there could be a co-evolutionary cycle of physical linkage for co-expression, upwards modification of the recombination rate and concomitant break-up of a cluster. Under such a model an "optimal" gene order is never stable.
Poyatos
Juan F
JF
Evolutionary Systems Biology Initiative, Structural and Computational Biology Programme, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Melchor Fernández Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain. jpoyatos@cnio.es
Hurst
Laurence D
LD
D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D023061:Gene Order; D016681:Genome, Fungal / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology