Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on June 18, 2005.

Genetics, Vol. 171, 1455-1461, December 2005, Copyright © 2005
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.044057

Conserved Functions of Yeast Genes Support the Duplication, Degeneration and Complementation Model for Gene Duplication

Ambro van Hoof1

University of Texas Health Science Center, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Houston, Texas 77030

1 Address for correspondence: University of Texas Health Science Center, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 6431 Fannin MSB1.212, Houston, TX 77030.
E-mail: ambro.van.hoof{at}uth.tmc.edu

Gene duplication is often cited as a potential mechanism for the evolution of new traits, but this hypothesis has not been thoroughly tested experimentally. A classical model of gene duplication states that after gene duplication one copy of the gene preserves the ancestral function, while the other copy is free to evolve a new function. In an alternative duplication, divergence, and complementation model, duplicated genes are preserved because each copy of the gene loses some, but not all, of its functions through degenerating mutations. This results in the degenerating mutations in one gene being complemented by the other and vice versa. These two models make very different predictions about the function of the preduplication orthologs in closely related species. These predictions have been tested here for several duplicated yeast genes that appeared to be the leading candidates to fit the classical model. Surprisingly, the results show that duplicated genes are maintained because each copy carries out a subset of the conserved functions that were already present in the preduplication gene. Therefore, the results are not consistent with the classical model, but instead fit the duplication, divergence, and complementation model.




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