Gene duplication in the genome of parasitic Giardia lamblia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Giardia are a group of widespread intestinal protozoan parasites in a number of vertebrates. Much evidence from G. lamblia indicated they might be the most primitive extant eukaryotes. When and how such a group of the earliest branching unicellular eukaryotes developed the ability to successfully parasitize the latest branching higher eukaryotes (vertebrates) is an intriguing question. Gene duplication has long been thought to be the most common mechanism in the production of primary resources for the origin of evolutionary novelties. In order to parse the evolutionary trajectory of Giardia parasitic lifestyle, here we carried out a genome-wide analysis about gene duplication patterns in G. lamblia.

Results

Although genomic comparison showed that in G. lamblia the

SUBMITTER: Sun J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2829556 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature