Uncovering Orthologous Genes of the Ciona Intestinalis Fanconi Anemia Pathway

Fanconi Anemia is a disease caused by any number of mutations in a collection of DNA double-strand repair genes. In silico tests were performed to determine whether any of these genes were conserved in Ciona, which split from humans over 500 million years ago. Among the 22 gene products tested, evidence for 10 orthologs were discovered. Possible orthologs were seen in all three of the major groups of FA proteins.