Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Measuring mRNA Levels Over Time During the Yeast S. cerevisiae Hypoxic Response
Published on: August 10, 2017
Rapid evolution of expression and regulatory divergences after yeast gene duplication
Xun Gu1, Zhongqi Zhang, Wei Huang
1State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. xgu@iastate.edu
Abstract:
Although gene duplication is widely believed to be the major source of genetic novelty, how the expression or regulatory network of duplicate genes evolves remains poorly understood. In this article, we propose an additive expression distance between duplicate genes, so that the evolutionary rate of expression divergence after gene duplication can be estimated through phylogenomic analysis. We have analyzed yeast genome sequences, microarrays, and transcriptional regulatory networks, showing a >10-fold increase in the initial rate for both expression and regulatory network evolution after gene duplication but only an approximately 20% rate increase in the early stage for protein sequences. Based on the estimated age distribution of yeast duplicate genes, we roughly estimate that the initial rate of expression divergence shortly after gene duplication is 2.9 x 10(-9) per year, whereas the baseline rate for very ancient gene duplication is 0.14 x 10(-9) per year. Relative expression rate tests suggest that the expression of duplicate genes tends to evolve asymmetrically, that is, the expression of one copy evolves rapidly, whereas the other one largely maintains the ancestral expression profile. Our study highlights the crucial role of early rapid evolution after gene/genome duplication for continuously increasing the complexity of the yeast regulatory network.
More Related Videos
10:44Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline
Published on: December 7, 2021
06:53In Vivo Monitoring of Transcriptional Activity During Metabolic Transition Using a Bioluminescent Reporter in Yeast
Published on: February 21, 2025
Related Concept Videos
Gene Duplication and Divergence
The duplicated copies of the gene are called Paralogs. Paralogs with similar sequences and functions form a gene family. Across several species, a large number of gene families are characterized.
Gene Families
Occasionally these regions can be adapted to take on new roles within the organism, becoming novel genes...
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...