Neofunctionalization

Neofunctionalization is the process by which a gene acquires a new function after a gene duplication event. The figure shows that once a gene duplication event has occurred one gene copy retains the original ancestral function (represented by the green paralog), while the other acquires mutations that allow it to diverge and develop a new function (represented by the blue paralog).

Neofunctionalization, one of the possible outcomes of functional divergence, occurs when one gene copy, or paralog, takes on a totally new function after a gene duplication event. Neofunctionalization is an adaptive mutation process; meaning one of the gene copies must mutate to develop a function that was not present in the ancestral gene.[1][2][3] In other words, one of the duplicates retains its original function, while the other accumulates molecular changes such that, in time, it can perform a different task.[4]

  1. ^ Kleinjan DA, Bancewicz RM, Gautier P, Dahm R, Schonthaler HB, Damante G, et al. (February 2008). "Subfunctionalization of duplicated zebrafish pax6 genes by cis-regulatory divergence". PLOS Genetics. 4 (2): e29. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0040029. PMC 2242813. PMID 18282108.
  2. ^ Rastogi S, Liberles DA (April 2005). "Subfunctionalization of duplicated genes as a transition state to neofunctionalization". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 5 (1): 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-5-28. PMC 1112588. PMID 15831095.
  3. ^ Conrad B, Antonarakis SE (2007). "Gene duplication: a drive for phenotypic diversity and cause of human disease". Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. 8: 17–35. doi:10.1146/annurev.genom.8.021307.110233. PMID 17386002.
  4. ^ Ohno (1970). Evolution by Gene Duplication. New York, Heidelberg, Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pp. 59–87. ISBN 978-3-540-05225-8.