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Like Siblings, Duplicate Genes Watch Out For Each Other

Aug 10, 2007

A recently published paper in PLoS Genetics shows evidence for gene duplication being evolutionarily conserved because it contributes to genetic robustness. Researchers at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy looked at a pair of duplicated histone deacetylases, Hst1p and Sir2p, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. They showed that before duplication, the ancestral protein had functions of both genes, but after, the genes produced two functionally distinct proteins. Despite this, Sir2p can substitute for Hst1p in its absence.

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