English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Released

Journal Article

Emergence of a new gene from an intergenic region

MPS-Authors
/persons/resource/persons56723

Heinen,  Tobias J. A. J.
Department Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons56948

Staubach,  Fabian
Department Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;
Guest Group Evolutionary Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons56706

Häming,  Daniela
Department Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons56962

Tautz,  Diethard       
Department Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Society;

External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Heinen, T. J. A. J., Staubach, F., Häming, D., & Tautz, D. (2009). Emergence of a new gene from an intergenic region. Current Biology, 19(18), 1527-1531. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.049.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-000F-D56D-6
Abstract
It is generally assumed that new genes would arise by gene duplication mechanisms, because the signals for regulation and transcript processing would be unlikely to evolve in parallel with a new gene function [1, 2]. We have identified here a transcript in the house mouse (Mus musculus) that has arisen within the past 2.5-3.5 million years in a large intergenic region. The region is present in many mammals, including humans, allowing us to exclude the involvement of gene duplication, transposable elements, or other genome rearrangements, which are typically found for other cases of newly evolved genes [3-8]. The gene has three exons, shows alternative splicing, and is specifically expressed in postmeiotic cells of the testis. The transcript is restricted to species within the genus Musand its emergence correlates with indel mutations in the 5' regulatory region of the transcript. A recent selective sweep is associated with the transcript region in M. m. musculus populations. A knockout in the laboratory strain BL6 results in reduced sperm motility and reduced testis weight. Our results show that cryptic signals for transcript regulation and processing exist in intergenic regions and can become the basis for the evolution of a new functional gene.