Markov Gabriel V, Sommer Ralf J
Department for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Spemannstraße 37, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Int J Evol Biol. 2012;2012:490894. doi: 10.1155/2012/490894. Epub 2012 Jun 19.
One of the major aims of contemporary evolutionary biology is the understanding of the current pattern of biological diversity. This involves, first, the description of character distribution at various nodes of the phylogenetic tree of life and, second, the functional explanation of such changes. The analysis of character distribution is a powerful tool at both the morphological and molecular levels. Recent high-throughput sequencing approaches provide new opportunities to study the genetic architecture of organisms at the genome-wide level. In eukaryotes, one overarching finding is the absence of simple correlations of gene count and biological complexity. Instead, the domain architecture of proteins is becoming a central focus for large-scale evolutionary innovations. Here, we review examples of the evolution of novelty in conserved gene families in insects and nematodes. We highlight how in the absence of whole-genome duplications molecular novelty can arise, how members of gene families have diversified at distinct mechanistic levels, and how gene expression can be maintained in the context of multiple innovations in regulatory mechanisms.
当代进化生物学的主要目标之一是理解当前生物多样性的模式。这首先涉及描述生命系统发育树各个节点上的性状分布，其次涉及对这些变化的功能解释。性状分布分析在形态学和分子水平上都是一种强大的工具。最近的高通量测序方法为在全基因组水平上研究生物体的遗传结构提供了新机会。在真核生物中，一个总体发现是基因数量与生物复杂性之间不存在简单的相关性。相反，蛋白质的结构域结构正成为大规模进化创新的核心焦点。在这里，我们回顾昆虫和线虫中保守基因家族新奇性进化的例子。我们强调在没有全基因组复制的情况下分子新奇性是如何产生的，基因家族成员在不同的机制水平上是如何多样化的，以及在调控机制发生多种创新的情况下基因表达是如何维持的。
