Old gene duplication facilitates origin and diversification of an innovative communication system--twice.

ABSTRACT: The genetic basis of parallel innovation remains poorly understood due to the rarity of independent origins of the same complex trait among model organisms. We focus on two groups of teleost fishes that independently gained myogenic electric organs underlying electrical communication. Earlier work suggested that a voltage-gated sodium channel gene (Scn4aa), which arose by whole-genome duplication, was neofunctionalized for expression in electric organ and subsequently experienced strong positive selection. However, it was not possible to determine if these changes were temporally linked to the independent origins of myogenic electric organs in both lineages. Here, we test predictions of such a relationship. We show that Scn4aa co-option and rapid sequence evolution were tightly coupled to

SUBMITTER: Arnegard ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3009798 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature