The effect of functional compensation among duplicate genes can constrain their evolutionary divergence

Gene duplicates have the inherent property of initially being functionally redundant. This means that they can compensate for the effect of deleterious variation occurring at one or more sister sites. Here, I present data bearing on evolutionary theory that illustrates the manner in which any functional adaptation in duplicate genes is markedly constrained because of the compensatory utility provided by a sustained genetic redundancy. Specifically, a two-locus epistatic model of paralogous genes was simulated to investigate the degree of purifying selection imposed, and whether this would serve to impede any possible biochemical innovation. Three population sizes were considered to see if, as expected, there was a significant difference in any selection for robustness. Interestingly, physical linkage between tandem duplicates was actually found to increase the probability of any neofunctionalization and the efficacy of selection, contrary to what is expected in the case of singleton genes. The results indicate that an evolutionary trade-off often exists between any functional change under either positive or relaxed selection and the need to compensate for failures due to degenerative mutations, thereby guaranteeing the reliability of protein production.