Increased expression and protein divergence in duplicate genes is associated with morphological diversification.

ABSTRACT: The differentiation of both gene expression and protein function is thought to be important as a mechanism of the functionalization of duplicate genes. However, it has not been addressed whether expression or protein divergence of duplicate genes is greater in those genes that have undergone functionalization compared with those that have not. We examined a total of 492 paralogous gene pairs associated with morphological diversification in a plant model organism (Arabidopsis thaliana). Classifying these paralogous gene pairs into high, low, and no morphological diversification groups, based on knock-out data, we found that the divergence rate of both gene expression and protein sequences were significantly higher in either high or low morphological diversification groups compared with thos

SUBMITTER: Hanada K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2788128 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature