Gene family level comparative analysis of gene expression in mammals validates the ortholog conjecture.

ABSTRACT: The ortholog conjecture (OC), which is central to functional annotation of genomes, posits that orthologous genes are functionally more similar than paralogous genes at the same level of sequence divergence. However, a recent study challenged the OC by reporting a greater functional similarity, in terms of Gene Ontology (GO) annotations and expression profiles, among within-species paralogs compared with orthologs. These findings were taken to indicate that functional similarity of homologous genes is primarily determined by the cellular context of the genes, rather than evolutionary history. However, several subsequent studies suggest that GO annotations and microarray data could artificially inflate functional similarity between paralogs from the same organism. We sought to test the OC u

SUBMITTER: Rogozin IB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4007545 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature