PSEUDOGENES: Are They "Junk" or Functional DNA?

• Published in: Annual review of genetics Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 123 - 151
• Main Authors: Balakirev, Evgeniy S, Ayala, Francisco J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139 Annual Reviews 01.01.2003; 4139 El Camino Way, P.O. Box 10139 Annual Reviews, Inc; USA
• Subjects: Animals; Base Sequence; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA polymorphism; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila melanogaster - genetics; Esterases - genetics; Evolution, Molecular; evolutionary rate; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation - physiology; Genes; Genetic Variation; Genomics; Mutation; neutral evolution; potogene; potogenes; Pseudogenes - physiology

Pseudogenes have been defined as nonfunctional sequences of genomic DNA originally derived from functional genes. It is therefore assumed that all pseudogene mutations are selectively neutral and have equal probability to become fixed in the population. Rather, pseudogenes that have been suitably in...