INVESTIGADORES
BELLORA nicolas
artículos
Título:
Evolution of primate orphan proteins
Autor/es:
MACARENA TOLL-RIERA; ROBERT CASTELO; NICOLAS BELLORA; M. MAR ALBA
Revista:
BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS
Editorial:
PORTLAND PRESS LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2009 vol. 37 p. 778 - 782
ISSN:
0300-5127
Resumen:
Genomes contain a large number of genes that do not have recognizable
homologues in other species. These genes, found in only one or a few
closely related species, are known as orphan genes. Their limited
distribution implies that many of them are probably involved in
lineage-specific adaptive processes. One important question that has
remained elusive to date is how orphan genes originate. It has been
proposed that they might have arisen by gene duplication followed by a
period of very rapid sequence divergence, which would have erased any
traces of similarity to other evolutionarily related genes. However,
this explanation does not seem plausible for genes lacking homologues
in very closely related species. In the present article, we review
recent efforts to identify the mechanisms of formation of primate
orphan genes. These studies reveal an unexpected important role of
transposable elements in the formation of novel protein-coding genes in
the genomes of primates.