When gene marriages don't work out: divorce by subfunctionalization.
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.
Cusack
Brian P
BP
Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Wolfe
Kenneth H
KH
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
D010940:Plant Proteins