Origin and Evolution of New Gene Functions

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-97

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2. The contribution of RNAs and retroposition to evolutionary novelties

   • Jürgen Brosius

   Pages 99-116

3. The emergence of a synthetic theory of intron evolution

   • Sandro J. de Souza

   Pages 117-121

4. Introns in gene evolution

   • Larisa Fedorova, Alexei Fedorov

   Pages 123-131

5. Functional divergence in protein (family) sequence evolution

   • Xun Gu

   Pages 133-141

6. The EBG system of E. coli: origin and evolution of a novel ß-galactosidase for the metabolism of lactose

   • Barry G. Hall

   Pages 143-156

7. The fucosyltransferase gene family: an amazing summary of the underlying mechanisms of gene evolution

   • Christophe Javaud, Fabrice Dupuy, Abderrahman Maftah, Raymond Julien, Jean-Michel Petit

   Pages 157-170

8. Origin of new genes: evidence from experimental and computational analyses

   • Manyuan Long, Michael Deutsch, Wen Wang, Esther Betrán, Frédéric G. Brunet, Jianming Zhang

   Pages 171-182

9. Transposable elements and vertebrate protein diversity

   • Anna Lorenc, Wojciech Makałowski

   Pages 183-191

10. Birth of ‘human-specific’ genes during primate evolution

    • Jean-Louis Nahon

    Pages 193-208

11. Evolution by gene duplication revisited: differentiation of regulatory elements versus proteins

    • Tomoko Ohta

    Pages 209-216

12. Modular assembly of genes and the evolution of new functions

    • László Patthy

    Pages 217-231

13. Origin and evolution of a new gene expressed in the Drosophila sperm axoneme

    • José María Ranz, Ana Rita Ponce, Daniel L. Hartl, Dmitry Nurminsky

    Pages 233-244

14. Molecular mechanisms of exon shuffling: illegitimate recombination

    • Anke van Rijk, Hans Bloemendal

    Pages 245-249

15. Recent evidence for the Exon Theory of Genes

    • Scott William Roy

    Pages 251-266

16. The universe of exons revisited

    • Serge Saxonov, Walter Gilbert

    Pages 267-278

17. Population-genetic models of the fates of duplicate genes

    • Bruce Walsh

    Pages 279-294

18. Back Matter

    Pages 295-295

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Although interest in evolutionary novelties can be that these different mechanisms cooperate in the mak­ traced back to the time of Darwin, the appreciation ing of new genes. In the second phase of new gene evolution, conventional models of new gene evolution, and systematical experimental pursuit of the origin and evolution of new gene functions did not appear for example by gene duplication, held that the muta­ until the early years of last decade. Since the 1970s, tions fixed in the early stages of the new genes are Susumu Ohno, Walter Gilbert, and others from the assumed to be neutral or nearly neutral. However, it area of evolutionary genetics have made pioneer ef­ appears that the force of Darwinian positive selection has been detectably strong from the outset in avail­ forts to elaborate possibilities for major biological mechanisms, for example, gene duplication and exon able population genetic studies of young genes created through the process of exon recombination. This may shuffling, by which new gene functions could arise. However, the problem of new gene evolution did not account for a common phenomenon in phylogenetic catch significant attention among biologists generally analyses of genes with changed functions: the early even recently. One of the reasons was the lack of ex­ stages of such genes are usually associated with accel­ perimental or observational systems for investigating erated substitution rates. Nonetheless, a more general factual details of the 'birth' process of new genes.

• Charles Darwin
• Darwin
• evolution
• genes
• genetics
• molecular mechanisms
• recombination
• the origin

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