Are Human Translated Pseudogenes Functional?
1Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Molecular Biology and Evolution
|November 22, 2015
Summary
Some pseudogenes, once thought non-functional, produce proteins. Evolutionary analysis reveals that certain translated pseudogenes are under purifying selection, suggesting they may have retained biological functions.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Genomics
- Proteomics
Background:
- Pseudogenes are typically considered non-functional gene relics.
- Recent studies suggest some pseudogenes may produce functional peptides.
- Identifying functional pseudogenes remains challenging.
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