Rapid and asymmetric divergence of duplicate genes in the human gene coexpression network.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While gene duplication is known to be one of the most common mechanisms of genome evolution, the fates of genes after duplication are still being debated. In particular, it is presently unknown whether most duplicate genes preserve (or subdivide) the functions of the parental gene or acquire new functions. One aspect of gene function, that is the expression profile in gene coexpression network, has been largely unexplored for duplicate genes.

Results

Here we build a human gene coexpression network using human tissue-specific microarray data and investigate the divergence of duplicate genes in it. The topology of this network is scale-free. Interestingly, our analysis indicates that duplicate genes rapidly lose shared coexpressed partners: after approximately 50 mi

SUBMITTER: Chung WY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1403810 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature