title: Widespread conservation of genetic redundancy during a billion years of eukaryotic evolution.
abstract: Genetic redundancy means that two genes can perform the same function. Using a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis, we show here in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans that genetic redundancy is not just a transient consequence of gene duplication, but is often an evolutionary stable state. In multiple examples, genes have retained redundant functions since the divergence of the animal, plant and fungi kingdoms over a billion years ago. The stable conservation of genetic redundancy contrasts with the more rapid evolution of genetic interactions between unrelated genes and can be explained by theoretical models including a 'piggyback' mechanism in which overlapping redundant functions are co-selected with nonredundant ones.
authors.affiliation: EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation, UPF, Barcelona 08003, Spain.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vavouri
authors.forename: Jennifer I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Semple
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lehner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000502:physiology; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D020440:Gene Duplication; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny