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More genes in vertebrates?

  • Chapter
Genome Evolution

Abstract

With the acquisition of complete genome sequences from several animals, there is renewed interest in the pattern of genome evolution on our own lineage. One key question is whether gene number increased during chordate or vertebrate evolution. It is argued here that comparing the total number of genes between a fly, a nematode and human is not appropriate to address this question. Extensive gene loss after duplication is one complication; another is the problem of comparing taxa that are phylogenetically very distant. Amphioxus and tunicates are more appropriate animals for comparison to vertebrates. Comparisons of clustered homeobox genes, where gene loss can be identified, reveals a one to four mode of evolution for Hox and ParaHox genes. Analyses of other gene families in amphioxus and vertebrates confirm that gene duplication was very widespread on the vertebrate lineage. These data confirm that vertebrates have more genes than their closest invertebrate relatives, acquired through gene duplication.

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Author notes

  1. Peter W. H. Holland

    Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Animal & Microbial Sciences, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 228, Reading, RG6 6AJ, UK

    Peter W. H. Holland

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  1. Peter W. H. Holland
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Konstanz, Germany

    Axel Meyer

  2. Ghent University, Belgium

    Yves Van de Peer

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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Holland, P.W.H. (2003). More genes in vertebrates?. In: Meyer, A., Van de Peer, Y. (eds) Genome Evolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0263-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0263-9_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3957-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0263-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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