title: When gene marriages don't work out: divorce by subfunctionalization.
abstract: We describe how a bifunctional gene, encoding two proteins by alternative splicing, arose when the chloroplast gene RPL32 integrated into an intron of the nuclear gene SODcp in an ancestor of mangrove and poplar trees. Mangrove retains the alternatively spliced chimeric gene, but in poplar it underwent duplication and complete subfunctionalization, through complementary structural degeneration, to re-form separate RPL32 and SODcp genes.
authors.affiliation: Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: Brian P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Cusack
authors.forename: Kenneth H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wolfe
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D002736:Chloroplasts; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020440:Gene Duplication; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D007438:Introns; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D032107:Populus / Q000235:genetics*; D043982:Rhizophoraceae / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins