The ortholog conjecture implies that functional similarity between orthologous genes is higher than between paralogs. It has been supported using levels of expression and Gene Ontology term analysis, although the evidence was rather weak and there were also conflicting reports. In this study on 12 species we provide strong evidence of high conservation in tissue-specificity between orthologs, in contrast to low conservation between within-species paralogs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe natural restoration of soils polluted by aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m- and p-xylene (BTEX) may be accelerated by inoculation of specific biodegraders (bioaugmentation). Bioaugmentation mainly involves introducing bacteria that deploy their metabolic properties and adaptation potential to survive and propagate in the contaminated environment by degrading the pollutant. In order to better understand the adaptive response of cells during a transition to contaminated material, we analyzed here the genome and short-term (1 h) changes in genome-wide gene expression of the BTEX-degrading bacterium Pseudomonas veronii 1YdBTEX2 in non-sterile soil and liquid medium, both in presence or absence of toluene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the major properties of genes is their expression pattern. Notably, genes are often classified as tissue specific or housekeeping. This property is of interest to molecular evolution as an explanatory factor of, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein-coding genes evolve at different rates, and the influence of different parameters, from gene size to expression level, has been extensively studied. While in yeast gene expression level is the major causal factor of gene evolutionary rate, the situation is more complex in animals. Here we investigate these relations further, especially taking in account gene expression in different organs as well as indirect correlations between parameters.
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