title: Pseudogenes and their composers: delving in the 'debris' of human genome.
abstract: Pseudogenes, the nonfunctional homologs of functional genes and thus exemplified as 'genomic fossils' provide intriguing snapshots of the evolutionary history of human genome. These defunct copies generally arise by retrotransposition or duplication followed by various genetic disablements. In this study, focusing on human pseudogenes and their functional homologues we describe their characteristic features and relevance to protein sequence evolution. We recapitulate that pseudogenes harbor disease-causing degenerative sequence variations in conjunction with the immense disease gene association of their progenitors. Furthermore, we also discuss the issue of functional resurrection and the potentiality observed in some pseudogenes to regulate their functional counterparts.
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Centre, Bose Institute, P 1/12, C.I.T. Scheme VII M, Kolkata 700 054, India. Tel.: +91 33 2355 6626; Fax: +91 33 2355 3886; tapash@jcbose.ac.in.
authors.forename: Kamalika
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.forename: Tapash Chandra
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Ghosh
mesh_terms: D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D011544:Pseudogenes / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: disease genes; evolutionary rate; human genome; pseudogenes