Consequences of lineage-specific gene loss on functional evolution of surviving paralogs: ALDH1A and retinoic acid signaling in vertebrate genomes.

ABSTRACT: Genome duplications increase genetic diversity and may facilitate the evolution of gene subfunctions. Little attention, however, has focused on the evolutionary impact of lineage-specific gene loss. Here, we show that identifying lineage-specific gene loss after genome duplication is important for understanding the evolution of gene subfunctions in surviving paralogs and for improving functional connectivity among human and model organism genomes. We examine the general principles of gene loss following duplication, coupled with expression analysis of the retinaldehyde dehydrogenase Aldh1a gene family during retinoic acid signaling in eye development as a case study. Humans have three ALDH1A genes, but teleosts have just one or two. We used comparative genomics and conserved syntenies to i

SUBMITTER: Canestro C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2682703 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature