Published in Science China Life Sciences
The realization that body parts of animals and plants can be recruited or coopted for novel functions dates back to, or even predates the observations of Darwin. S.J. Gould and E.S. Vrba recognized a mode of evolution of characters that differs from adaptation. The umbrella term aptation was supplemented with the concept of exaptation. Unlike adapt...
Published in Journal of Biosciences
The intra/inter-genomic comparative mapping-based phylogenetic footprinting identified 5 paralogous and 656 orthologous genome-wide CNMS markers in the upstream sequences of chickpea genes. These CNMS markers revealed a high-degree of gene-based syntenic relationship between chickpea and Medicago genomes while minimum between chickpea and Vitis gen...
Among all cellular life on earth, with the exception of yeasts, fungi, and some prokaryotes, VKOR family homologs are ubiquitously encoded in nuclear genomes, suggesting ancient and important biological roles for these enzymes. Despite single gene and whole genome duplications on the largest evolutionary timescales, and the fact that most gene dupl...
Published in Frontiers in genetics
Gene duplication is a recurring phenomenon in genome evolution and a major driving force in the gain of biological functions. Here, we examine the role of gene duplication in the origin and maintenance of moonlighting proteins, with special focus on functional redundancy and innovation, molecular tradeoffs, and genetic robustness. An overview of sp...
Published in Frontiers in neuroscience
Genome duplication, thought to have happened twice early in vertebrate evolution and a third time in teleost fishes, gives rise to gene paralogs that can evolve subfunctions or neofunctions via sequence and regulatory changes. To explore the evolution and functions of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), we searched sequenced teleost genomes for ...
Published in DNA research : an international journal for rapid publication of reports on genes and genomes
In this study, we carried out an evolutionary, transcriptional, and functional analyses of the trihelix transcription factor family. A total of 319 trihelix members, identified from 11 land plant species, were classified into five clades. The results of phylogeny indicate the binding domains of GT1 and GT2 diverged early in the existence of land pl...
Published in Genome biology and evolution
Snake venom has been hypothesized to have originated and diversified through a process that involves duplication of genes encoding body proteins with subsequent recruitment of the copy to the venom gland, where natural selection acts to develop or increase toxicity. However, gene duplication is known to be a rare event in vertebrate genomes, and th...
Published in Molecular biology and evolution
The cation chloride cotransporter (CCCs) family comprises of four subfamilies-K(+)-Cl(-) cotransporters (KCCs), Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) cotransporters (NKCCs), and Na(+)-Cl(-) cotransporters (NCCs)-and possibly two additional members-CCC interacting protein (CIP1) and polyamine transporters (CCC9)-as well. Altogether, CCCs can play essential physiologica...
Published in Fly
Gene duplication is thought to play a key role in phenotypic innovation. While several processes have been hypothesized to drive the retention and functional evolution of duplicate genes, their genomic contributions have never been determined. We recently developed the first genome-wide method to classify these processes by comparing distances betw...
Published in Frontiers in plant science
Multiple geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthases (GGPPS) for biosynthesis of geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) exist in plants. GGPP is produced in the isoprenoid pathway and is a central precursor for various primary and specialized plant metabolites. Therefore, its biosynthesis is an essential regulatory point in the isoprenoid pathway. We selected ...
