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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.
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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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Next-generation sequencing technologies have created large genomic databases of a variety of animals and plants. Ever since the human genome project was completed, scientists studied the genome of primates, mammals, and other phylogenetically distant living beings. Such large-scale studies have provided new insights into the evolutionary relationship between organisms.
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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.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 31, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

Gorilla genome structural variation reveals evolutionary parallelisms with chimpanzee.

Mario Ventura¹, Claudia R Catacchio, Can Alkan

¹Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.

Genome Research

|June 21, 2011

Summary

Gorilla genomes show extensive structural variation, including high rates of segmental duplication. Both gorilla and chimpanzee genomes exhibit unique evolutionary changes not seen in humans, suggesting they are more structurally derived.

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Area of Science:

Genomics
Evolutionary Biology
Comparative Genomics

Background:

Structural variation is crucial for human and great ape genome evolution.
Chimpanzee and human genomes are known to be rich in structural variation.
The extent of structural variation in the gorilla lineage requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To assess the extent and types of structural variation in the western lowland gorilla genome.
To compare structural variation patterns between gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans.
To understand the evolutionary implications of structural changes in the great ape lineages.

Main Methods:

Generating 10-fold genomic sequence coverage for a western lowland gorilla.
Integrating sequence data into a physical and cytogenetic framework.
Discovering and validating structural variations like inversions, deletions, duplications, and mobile element insertions.

Main Results:

Over 7665 structural changes were discovered and validated in the gorilla lineage.
The gorilla genome exhibits the highest rate of segmental duplication compared to other apes.
Gorilla and chimpanzee genomes show convergent structural mutations, including subtelomeric heterochromatic caps and retroviral integrations, not present in humans.

Conclusions:

Gorilla genomes are significantly enriched for structural variation.
Gorilla and chimpanzee genomes are structurally more derived than human and orangutan genomes.
Independent evolutionary pathways have led to similar structural genomic changes in gorillas and chimpanzees.