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Synteny and Evolution

Synteny and Evolution

John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...

Gene Duplication and Divergence

Gene Duplication and Divergence

The seminal work of Ohno in 1970 popularized the idea of gene duplication and divergence. DNA sequence comparison studies reveal that a large portion of the genes in bacteria, archaebacteria, and eukaryotes was generated by gene duplication and divergence, indicating its critical role in evolution.
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

Gene Families

Gene families consist of groups of genes proposed to have originated from a common ancestor. Typically these arise through events in which a gene or genes are mistakenly duplicated during cell division. Unlike their parent genes (which are subject to selection pressure to maintain function), these gene copies do not need to preserve their sequences and may evolve at a relatively faster rate.
Occasionally these regions can be adapted to take on new roles within the organism, becoming novel genes...

Gene Families

Gene Families

Gene families consist of groups of genes proposed to have originated from a common ancestor. Typically these arise through events in which a gene or genes are mistakenly duplicated during cell division. Unlike their parent genes (which are subject to selection pressure to maintain function), these gene copies do not need to preserve their sequences and may evolve at a relatively faster rate.
Occasionally these regions can be adapted to take on new roles within the organism, becoming novel genes...

Eukaryotic Evolution

Eukaryotic Evolution

The endosymbiont theory is the most widely accepted theory of eukaryotic evolution; however, its progression is still somewhat debated. According to the nucleus-first hypothesis, the ancestral prokaryote first evolved a membrane to enclose DNA and form the nucleus. Conversely, the mitochondria-first hypothesis suggests that the nucleus was formed after endosymbiosis of mitochondria.
Contrary to the endosymbiont theory, the eukaryote-first hypothesis proposes that the simpler prokaryotic and...

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

A Bioinformatics Pipeline for Investigating Molecular Evolution and Gene Expression using RNA-seq

A Bioinformatics Pipeline for Investigating Molecular Evolution and Gene Expression using RNA-seq

Published on: May 28, 2021

RPS4Y gene family evolution in primates.

Olga Andrés¹, Thomas Kellermann, Francesc López-Giráldez

¹Genètica de Conservació Animal, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, Crta, de Cabrils km2, 08348 Cabrils, Spain. olga.andres@gmail.com

BMC Evolutionary Biology

|May 15, 2008

Summary

The RPS4Y2 gene, a human lineage paralog, arose 35 million years ago and shows evidence of positive selection, potentially acquiring new functions. This ribosomal protein evolution offers insights into gene dosage compensation and functional divergence.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Genetics
Molecular biology

Background:

The RPS4 gene encodes ribosomal protein S4, conserved across all life forms.
In primates, RPS4 is encoded by RPS4X and RPS4Y genes on sex chromosomes.
Humans possess an additional testis-specific paralog, RPS4Y2, on the Y chromosome.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary history of the RPS4Y gene family, particularly RPS4Y2.
To understand the functional implications of RPS4Y2 duplication and evolution in primates.

Main Methods:

DNA sequence analysis of intronic and cDNA regions of RPS4Y genes across primate phylogeny.
Maximum likelihood analyses of synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions.

Main Results:

The duplication event creating RPS4Y2 occurred ~35 million years ago, after New World monkey divergence.
Positive selection was identified in the human lineage RPS4Y2, a novel finding for ribosomal protein genes.
Amino acid changes in RPS4Y2, including one in the KOW domain, may significantly impact protein function.

Conclusions:

RPS4Y1 may function in inter-sex gene dosage compensation.
RPS4Y2 likely acquired novel functions, particularly in the human lineage.
The study provides new insights into the evolution of the RPS4Y gene family.