A network perspective on the evolution of metabolism by gene duplication.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Gene duplication followed by divergence is one of the main sources of metabolic versatility. The patchwork and stepwise models of metabolic evolution help us to understand these processes, but their assumptions are relatively simplistic. We used a network-based approach to determine the influence of metabolic constraints on the retention of duplicated genes.

Results

We detected duplicated genes by looking for enzymes sharing homologous domains and uncovered an increased retention of duplicates for enzymes catalyzing consecutive reactions, as illustrated by the ligases acting in the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan. As a consequence, metabolic networks show a high retention of duplicates within functional modules, and we found a preferential biochemical coupling of re

SUBMITTER: Diaz-Mejia JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1852415 | biostudies-literature | 2007

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature