G3 (Bethesda). 2012 Feb;2(2):313-9. doi: 10.1534/g3.111.001412. Epub 2012 Feb 1.
The Osiris gene family, first described in Drosophila melanogaster, is clustered in the genomes of all Drosophila species sequenced to date. In D. melanogaster, it explains the enigmatic phenomenon of the triplo-lethal and haploinsufficient locus Tpl. The synteny of Osiris genes in flies is well conserved, and it is one of the largest syntenic blocks in the Drosophila group. By examining the genome sequences of other insects in a wide range of taxonomic orders, we show here that the gene family is well-conserved and syntenic not only in the diptera but across the holometabolous and hemimetabolous insects. Osiris gene homologs have also been found in the expressed sequence tag sequences of various other insects but are absent from all groups that are not insects, including crustacea and arachnids. It is clear that the gene family evolved by gene duplication and neofunctionalization very soon after the divergence of the insects from other arthropods but before the divergence of the insects from one another and that the sequences and synteny have been maintained by selection ever since.
Osiris 基因家族最早在果蝇中被描述，在迄今为止测序的所有果蝇物种的基因组中都有聚类。在果蝇中，它解释了神秘的三倍致死和半合子不足位点 Tpl 的现象。果蝇中 Osiris 基因的同线性很好地保守着，它是果蝇目中最大的同线性块之一。通过检查广泛的分类阶元中其他昆虫的基因组序列，我们在这里表明，该基因家族不仅在双翅目昆虫中很好地保守和同线性，而且在全变态和不全变态昆虫中也是如此。Osiris 基因的同源物也在各种其他昆虫的表达序列标签序列中被发现，但在所有非昆虫类群中都不存在，包括甲壳动物和蛛形纲动物。很明显，该基因家族在昆虫与其他节肢动物分化后不久，就在昆虫彼此分化之前，通过基因复制和新功能化进化而来，并且自那时以来，序列和同线性一直受到选择的维护。
