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EVG, the Remnants of a Primordial Bilaterian’s Synteny of Functionally Unrelated Genes

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Abstract

Extant genomes are the result of repeated duplications and subsequent divergence of primordial genes that assembled the genomes of the first living beings. Increased information on genome maps of different species is revealing conserved syntenies among different vertebrate taxa, which allow to trace back the history of current chromosomes. However, inferring neighboring relationships between genes of more primitive genomes has proven to be very difficult. Most often, the ancestral arrangements of genes have been lost by multiple histories of internal duplications, chromosomal breaks, and large-scale genomic rearrangements. Here we describe a gene arrangement of nonrelated genes that seems to have endured evolution, at least from the separation of the two major clades of bilateria: deuterostomia and protostomia, approximately 1 billion years ago. In its simplest conception, this gene cluster, named EVG, groups the genes for a glucose transporter, an enolase, and a vesicle-associated membrane protein (VAMP). EVG might represent the evolutionary remnants of the gene organization of an ancient bilaterian genome.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Lamas, C. Zaragoza, and V. Ley for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions. This work was supported in part by grants to B.G. (Ayudas de Investigación Serono de la Fundación Salud-2000 [Spain]) and J.R.-C. (PM1999-0103; Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología).

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  1. Departamento de Biología Celular y Desarrollo, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Velázquez 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain

    Begoña Granadino & Javier Rey-Campos

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  1. Begoña Granadino
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  2. Javier Rey-Campos
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Correspondence to Javier Rey-Campos.

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Granadino, B., Rey-Campos, J. EVG, the Remnants of a Primordial Bilaterian’s Synteny of Functionally Unrelated Genes . J Mol Evol 57, 515–519 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-003-2503-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-003-2503-9

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