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HOW MANY PROCESSED PSEUDOGENES ARE ACCUMULATED IN A GENE FAMILY?
James Bruce Walsh 1
1 Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, The University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
A simple kinetic model is developed that describes the accumulation
of processed pseudogenes in a functional gene family. Insertion of new pseudogenes
occurs at rate 
per gene and is countered by spontaneous deletion (at
rate 
per DNA segment) of segments containing processed pseudogenes.
If there are k functional genes in a gene family, the equilibrium
number of processed pseudogenes is k(/), and the percentage
of functional genes in the gene family at equilibrium is 1/[1 + (/)]. /
values estimated for five gene families ranged from 1.7 to 15. This fairly
narrow range suggests that the rates of formation and deletion of processed
pseudogenes may be positively correlated for these families. If is
sufficiently large relative to the per nucleotide mutation rate µ ( >
20µ), processed pseudogenes will show high homology with each other, even
in the absence of gene conversion between pseudogenes. We argue that formation
of processed pseudogenes may share common pathways with transposable elements
and retroviruses, creating the potential for correlated responses in the evolution
of processed pseudogenes due to direct selection for control of transposable
elements and/or retroviruses. Finally, we discuss the nature of the selective
forces that may act directly or indirectly to influence the evolution of processed
pseudogenes.
Anything produced by evolution is bound to be a bit of a mess—S. Brenner
Submitted on October 30, 1984Accepted on February 19, 1985
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