Diatom heterotrophy on brown algal polysaccharides emerged through horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and neofunctionalization

Diatoms are ancestrally photosynthetic microalgae, but the genus Nitzschia has lost photosynthesis to become free-living secondary heterotrophs. This study shows how a single horizontal gene transfer from marine bacteria, followed by substantial gene duplication and neofunctionalization, led to alginate catabolism and access to a new ecological niche involving brown algal polysaccharides.

Smith Lab

A direct experimental test of Ohno’s hypothesis - preLights

An experimental system to test hypotheses on the evolution of gene duplication. Was S. Ohno right?

Subfunctionalized expression drives evolutionary retention of ribosomal protein paralogs Rps27 and Rps27l in vertebrates

Ribosomal proteins Rps27 (eS27) and Rps27l (eS27L) are an ancient pair of duplicated genes that encode functionally interchangeable proteins, yet have been evolutionarily retained because both copies are necessary to achieve protein expression across cell types.

Parallel evolution of amphioxus and vertebrate small-scale gene duplications - Genome Biology

Background Amphioxus are non-vertebrate chordates characterized by a slow morphological and molecular evolution. They share the basic chordate body-plan and genome organization with vertebrates but lack their 2R whole-genome duplications and their developmental complexity. For these reasons, amphioxus are frequently used as an outgroup to study vertebrate genome evolution and Evo-Devo. Aside from whole-genome duplications, genes continuously duplicate on a smaller scale. Small-scale duplicated genes can be found in both amphioxus and vertebrate genomes, while only the vertebrate genomes have duplicated genes product of their 2R whole-genome duplications. Here, we explore the history of small-scale gene duplications in the amphioxus lineage and compare it to small- and large-scale gene duplication history in vertebrates. Results We present a study of the European amphioxus (Branchiostoma lanceolatum) gene duplications thanks to a new, high-quality genome reference. We find that, despite its overall slow molecular evolution, the amphioxus lineage has had a history of small-scale duplications similar to the one observed in vertebrates. We find parallel gene duplication profiles between amphioxus and vertebrates and conserved functional constraints in gene duplication. Moreover, amphioxus gene duplicates show levels of expression and patterns of functional specialization similar to the ones observed in vertebrate duplicated genes. We also find strong conservation of gene synteny between two distant amphioxus species, B. lanceolatum and B. floridae, with two major chromosomal rearrangements. Conclusions In contrast to their slower molecular and morphological evolution, amphioxus’ small-scale gene duplication history resembles that of the vertebrate lineage both in quantitative and in functional terms.