Tracing the Origin and Evolutionary Fate of Recent Gene Retrocopies in Natural Populations of the House Mouse.

ABSTRACT: Although the contribution of retrogenes to the evolution of genes and genomes has long been recognized, the evolutionary patterns of very recently derived retrocopies that are still polymorphic within natural populations have not been much studied so far. We use here a set of 2,025 such retrocopies in nine house mouse populations from three subspecies (Mus musculus domesticus, M. m. musculus, and M. m. castaneus) to trace their origin and evolutionary fate. We find that ancient house-keeping genes are significantly more likely to generate retrocopies than younger genes and that the propensity to generate a retrocopy depends on its level of expression in the germline. Although most retrocopies are detrimental and quickly purged, we focus here on the subset that appears to be neutral or even

SUBMITTER: Zhang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8826619 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature