New Genes Born-In or Invading Vertebrate Genomes

Which is the origin of genes is a fundamental question in Biology, indeed a question older than the discovery of genes itself. For more than a century, it was uneven to think in origins other than duplication and divergence from a previous gene. In recent years, however, the intersection of genetics...

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Published inFrontiers in cell and developmental biology Vol. 9; p. 713918
Main Authors Herrera-Úbeda, Carlos, Garcia-Fernàndez, Jordi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 06.07.2021
Subjects
Bex-Tceal
Cell and Developmental Biology
gene_birth
junk_DNA
transposon-domestication
virus-invasion
gene_birth
junk_DNA
transposon-domestication
virus-invasion
Bex-Tceal
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Summary:Which is the origin of genes is a fundamental question in Biology, indeed a question older than the discovery of genes itself. For more than a century, it was uneven to think in origins other than duplication and divergence from a previous gene. In recent years, however, the intersection of genetics, embryonic development, and bioinformatics, has brought to light that generation from non-genic DNA, horizontal gene transfer and, noticeably, virus and transposon invasions, have shaped current genomes, by integrating those newcomers into old gene networks, helping to shape morphological and physiological innovations. We here summarized some of the recent research in the field, mostly in the vertebrate lineage with a focus on protein-coding novelties, showing that the placenta, the adaptative immune system, or the highly developed neocortex, among other innovations, are linked to gene creation or domestication of virus and transposons. We provocatively suggest that the high tolerance to virus infections by bats may also be related to previous virus and transposon invasions in the bat lineage.
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Reviewed by: Bastian Fromm, Stockholm University, Sweden; Daqi Yu, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
Edited by: Juan Pascual-Anaya, University of Málaga, Spain
This article was submitted to Evolutionary Developmental Biology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
ISSN:2296-634X
2296-634X
DOI:10.3389/fcell.2021.713918