State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
College of Life Science, Anhui University, Hefei, China.
J Mol Cell Biol. 2018 Apr 1;10(2):139-146. doi: 10.1093/jmcb/mjx057.
New genes are drivers of evolutionary innovation and phenotypic evolution. Expression of new genes in early development raises the possibility that new genes could originate and be recruited for functions in embryonic development, but this remains undocumented. Here, based on temporal gene expression at different developmental stages in Xenopus tropicalis, we found that young protein-coding genes were significantly enriched for expression in developmental stages occurring after the midblastula transition (MBT), and displayed a decreasing trend in abundance in the subsequent stages after MBT. To complement the finding, we demonstrate essential functional attributes of a young orphan gene, named as Fog2, in morphological development. Our data indicate that new genes could originate after MBT and be recruited for functions in embryonic development, and thus provide insights for better understanding of the origin, evolution, and function of new genes.
新基因是进化创新和表型进化的驱动因素。新基因在早期发育中的表达提出了这样一种可能性，即新基因可能起源，并被招募用于胚胎发育中的功能，但这尚未得到证实。在这里，我们基于 Xenopus tropicalis 不同发育阶段的时间基因表达，发现年轻的蛋白质编码基因在中胚层转换（MBT）后发生的发育阶段中显著富集表达，并在 MBT 后随后的阶段中表达丰度呈下降趋势。为了补充这一发现，我们证明了一个名为 Fog2 的年轻孤儿基因在形态发育中的重要功能属性。我们的数据表明，新基因可能在 MBT 后起源，并被招募用于胚胎发育中的功能，因此为更好地理解新基因的起源、进化和功能提供了线索。
