Selection upon genome architecture: conservation of functional neighborhoods with changing genes.

ABSTRACT: An increasing number of evidences show that genes are not distributed randomly across eukaryotic chromosomes, but rather in functional neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the driving force that originated and maintains such neighborhoods is still a matter of controversy. We present the first detailed multispecies cartography of genome regions enriched in genes with related functions and study the evolutionary implications of such clustering. Our results indicate that the chromosomes of higher eukaryotic genomes contain up to 12% of genes arranged in functional neighborhoods, with a high level of gene co-expression, which are consistently distributed in phylogenies. Unexpectedly, neighborhoods with homologous functions are formed by different (non-orthologous) genes in different species. Actually,

SUBMITTER: Al-Shahrour F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2951340 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature