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Updated: May 17, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Functional divergence of gene duplicates through ectopic recombination
Joaquin F Christiaens1, Sebastiaan E Van Mulders, Jorge Duitama
1Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics (CMPG), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 22, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium.
Abstract:
Gene duplication stimulates evolutionary innovation as the resulting paralogs acquire mutations that lead to sub- or neofunctionalization. A comprehensive in silico analysis of paralogs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals that duplicates of cell-surface and subtelomeric genes also undergo ectopic recombination, which leads to new chimaeric alleles. Mimicking such intergenic recombination events in the FLO (flocculation) family of cell-surface genes shows that chimaeric FLO alleles confer different adhesion phenotypes than the parental genes. Our results indicate that intergenic recombination between paralogs can generate a large set of new alleles, thereby providing the raw material for evolutionary adaptation and innovation.
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