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    Structure and chromosome localization of the human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin and eosinophil cationic protein genes: Evidence for intronless coding sequences in the ribonuclease gene superfamily
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    A strain of cadmium-resistant Drosophila was isolated that contained a chromosomal duplication of the metallothionein gene, Mtn. This duplication was a direct, tandem repeat of 2.2 kilobases of DNA: 228 bases of 5' flanking DNA, the entire transcription unit, and 1.4 kilobases of 3' flanking DNA. The entire duplication was cloned and DNA sequences of the regions relevant to the duplication process were determined. Comparison of the sequences of the 5' and 3' boundaries revealed no extensive regions of similarity, thus indicating that this duplication was formed by nonhomologous breakage and reunion. Recently, results of similar analyses by other investigators have suggested that this process was involved in the origin of three other eukaryotic duplications. The authors have observed a chi-like sequence near one of the boundaries of each duplication, and therefore suggest that this sequence may be important in generating one of the breaks required for duplication formation.
    Segmental duplication
    Citations (0)
    Genes with new functions often evolve by gene duplication. Alternative splicing is another means of evolutionary innovation in eukaryotes, which allows a single gene to encode functionally diverse proteins. We investigate a connection between these two evolutionary phenomena. For approximately 10% of the described cases of substitution alternative splicing, such that either one or another amino acid sequence is included into the protein, evidence of origin by tandem exon duplication was found. This is a conservative estimate because alternative exons are typically short and, on many occasions, duplicates may have diverged beyond recognition. Dating exon duplications through a combination of the available experimental data on alternative splicing in orthologous genes from different species and computational analysis indicates that most of the duplications antedate at least the radiation of mammalian orders or even the radiation of vertebrate classes. At present, tandem exon duplication is the only mechanism of evolution of substitution alternative splicing that can be specifically demonstrated. Along with gene duplication, this could be a major route for generating functional diversity during evolution of multicellular eukaryotes.
    Exon shuffling
    Citations (150)
    We examined mRNA expression and internal tandem duplication of the Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene in haematological malignancies by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and genomic PCR followed by sequencing. By RT-PCR, expression of FLT3 was detected in 45/74 (61%) leukaemia cell lines and the frequency of expression of FLT3 was significantly higher in undifferentiated type (B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; ALL) than in differentiated type cell lines (B-ALL) (P = 0.0076). Using the genomic PCR method, 194 fresh samples including 87 acute myeloid leukaemias, 60 ALLs, 32 myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) and 15 juvenile chronic myelogenous leukaemias (JCMLs) were examined. Tandem duplication was found in 12 (13.8%) AMLs and two (3.3%) ALLs. Sequence analyses of the 14 samples with the duplication revealed that eight showed a simple tandem duplication and six a tandem duplication with insertion. Most of these tandem duplications occurred within exon 11, and two duplications occurred from exon 11 to intron 11 and exon 12. No tandem duplications of FLT3 gene were detected in MDS or JCML. The frequency of tandem duplication of FLT3 gene in childhood AML was lower than that in adult AML so far reported. All of the 12 AML patients with the duplication died within 47 months after diagnosis, whereas two ALL patients with the duplication have survived 44 and 72 months, respectively. These two ALL patients expressed both lymphoid and myeloid antigens and were considered to have biphenotypic leukaemia. These results suggest that tandem duplication is involved in ALL in addition to AML, but not in childhood MDS or JCML, and that childhood AML patients with the tandem duplication have a poor prognosis.
    Gene rearrangement
    ABSTRACT Salmonella typhimurium strains containing a duplication of nearly a third of the genome have been isolated by a simple procedure involving selection for improved utilization of L-malate as sole carbon source. The duplication occurs at a very high spontaneous frequency. Strains containing the duplication can be isolated selectively on malate medium, or by a non-selective procedure involving Hfr conjugation. When strains containing the duplication are maintained on non-selective medium, the duplication is readily lost. Genetic evidence suggests that the duplication is chromosomal and tandem. The fact that the recA gene is included in the duplication has been used to obtain evidence that the recA1 marker is recessive to its wild-type allele. Unlike tandem duplications previously described in E. coli, the duplication described in this report appears to have unique endpoints
    Citations (41)
    We examined mRNA expression and internal tandem duplication of the Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene in haematological malignancies by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and genomic PCR followed by sequencing. By RT-PCR, expression of FLT3 was detected in 45/74 (61%) leukaemia cell lines and the frequency of expression of FLT3 was significantly higher in undifferentiated type (B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; ALL) than in differentiated type cell lines (B-ALL) (P = 0.0076). Using the genomic PCR method, 194 fresh samples including 87 acute myeloid leukaemias, 60 ALLs, 32 myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) and 15 juvenile chronic myelogenous leukaemias (JCMLs) were examined. Tandem duplication was found in 12 (13.8%) AMLs and two (3.3%) ALLs. Sequence analyses of the 14 samples with the duplication revealed that eight showed a simple tandem duplication and six a tandem duplication with insertion. Most of these tandem duplications occurred within exon 11, and two duplications occurred from exon 11 to intron 11 and exon 12. No tandem duplications of FLT3 gene were detected in MDS or JCML. The frequency of tandem duplication of FLT3 gene in childhood AML was lower than that in adult AML so far reported. All of the 12 AML patients with the duplication died within 47 months after diagnosis, whereas two ALL patients with the duplication have survived 44 and 72 months, respectively. These two ALL patients expressed both lymphoid and myeloid antigens and were considered to have biphenotypic leukaemia. These results suggest that tandem duplication is involved in ALL in addition to AML, but not in childhood MDS or JCML, and that childhood AML patients with the tandem duplication have a poor prognosis.
    Gene rearrangement
    Most coding genes in the human genome are annotated with multiple alternative transcripts. However, clear evidence for the functional relevance of the protein isoforms produced by these alternative transcripts is often hard to find. Alternative isoforms generated from tandem exon duplication-derived substitutions are an exception. These splice events are rare, but have important functional consequences. Here, we have catalogued the 236 tandem exon duplication-derived substitutions annotated in the GENCODE human reference set. We find that more than 90% of the events have a last common ancestor in teleost fish, so are at least 425 million years old, and twenty-one can be traced back to the Bilateria clade. Alternative isoforms generated from tandem exon duplication-derived substitutions also have significantly more clinical impact than other alternative isoforms. Tandem exon duplication-derived substitutions have >25 times as many pathogenic and likely pathogenic mutations as other alternative events. Tandem exon duplication-derived substitutions appear to have vital functional roles in the cell and may have played a prominent part in metazoan evolution.
    Bilateria
    splice
    Functional divergence
    Exon shuffling
    Citations (14)
    Gene duplication plays important roles in organismal evolution, because duplicate genes provide raw materials for the evolution of mechanisms controlling physiological and/or morphological novelties. Gene duplication can occur via several mechanisms, including segmental duplication, tandem duplication and retroposition. Although segmental and tandem duplications have been found to be important for the expansion of a number of multigene families, the contribution of retroposition is not clear. Here we show that plant SKP1 genes have evolved by multiple duplication events from a single ancestral copy in the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of eudicots and monocots, resulting in 19 ASK (Arabidopsis SKP1-like) and 28 OSK (Oryza SKP1-like) genes. The estimated birth rates are more than ten times the average rate of gene duplication, and are even higher than that of other rapidly duplicating plant genes, such as type I MADS box genes, R genes, and genes encoding receptor-like kinases. Further analyses suggest that a relatively large proportion of the duplication events may be explained by tandem duplication, but few, if any, are likely to be due to segmental duplication. In addition, by mapping the gain/loss of a specific intron on gene phylogenies, and by searching for the features that characterize retrogenes/retrosequences, we show that retroposition is an important mechanism for expansion of the plant SKP1 gene family. Specifically, we propose that two and three ancient retroposition events occurred in lineages leading to Arabidopsis and rice, respectively, followed by repeated tandem duplications and chromosome rearrangements. Our study represents a thorough investigation showing that retroposition can play an important role in the evolution of a plant gene family whose members do not encode mobile elements.
    Segmental duplication
    Functional divergence