The effect of gene conversion on the divergence between duplicated genes

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Population genetics
• Genomics

Background:

• Duplicated genes can evolve independently or nonindependently.
• Nonindependent evolution of duplicated genes is termed concerted evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model and analyze the evolutionary process of duplicated regions undergoing concerted evolution.
• To understand the dynamics of divergence between duplicated genes under mutation and gene conversion.

Main Methods:

• Development of a mathematical model incorporating mutation and gene conversion.
• Simulation of the evolutionary process to observe divergence patterns.
• Derivation of probability distributions for sequence divergence.

Main Results:

• The concerted evolution process exhibits three distinct phases: initial divergence, fluctuation around equilibrium, and redivergence.
• The duration of the fluctuation phase (phase II) is highly variable and follows an exponential distribution.
• The length of phase II is influenced by parameters such as gene conversion rate and tract length.

Conclusions:

• The variability in concerted evolution phases has implications for genomic data analysis.
• Reliance on molecular clocks for duplicated genes may be problematic when concerted evolution is prevalent.
• Understanding concerted evolution is crucial for accurate evolutionary inference from genomic data.