IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v421y2003i6918d10.1038_nature01198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Role of duplicate genes in genetic robustness against null mutations

Author

Listed:
  • Zhenglong Gu

    (University of Chicago)

  • Lars M. Steinmetz

    (Stanford University School of Medicine)

  • Xun Gu

    (Iowa State University)

  • Curt Scharfe

    (Stanford University School of Medicine)

  • Ronald W. Davis

    (Stanford University School of Medicine)

  • Wen-Hsiung Li

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

Deleting a gene in an organism often has little phenotypic effect1,2,3,4,5, owing to two mechanisms of compensation4,5,6,7,8,9,10. The first is the existence of duplicate genes: that is, the loss of function in one copy can be compensated by the other copy or copies. The second mechanism of compensation stems from alternative metabolic pathways, regulatory networks, and so on. The relative importance of the two mechanisms has not been investigated except for a limited study, which suggested that the role of duplicate genes in compensation is negligible10. The availability of fitness data for a nearly complete set of single-gene-deletion mutants of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome11 has enabled us to carry out a genome-wide evaluation of the role of duplicate genes in genetic robustness against null mutations. Here we show that there is a significantly higher probability of functional compensation for a duplicate gene than for a singleton, a high correlation between the frequency of compensation and the sequence similarity of two duplicates, and a higher probability of a severe fitness effect when the duplicate copy that is more highly expressed is deleted. We estimate that in S. cerevisiae at least a quarter of those gene deletions that have no phenotype are compensated by duplicate genes.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhenglong Gu & Lars M. Steinmetz & Xun Gu & Curt Scharfe & Ronald W. Davis & Wen-Hsiung Li, 2003. "Role of duplicate genes in genetic robustness against null mutations," Nature, Nature, vol. 421(6918), pages 63-66, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:421:y:2003:i:6918:d:10.1038_nature01198
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01198
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01198
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature01198?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andras Gyorgy, 2023. "Competition and evolutionary selection among core regulatory motifs in gene expression control," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Alon Kaufman & Alon Keinan & Isaac Meilijson & Martin Kupiec & Eytan Ruppin, 2005. "Quantitative Analysis of Genetic and Neuronal Multi-Perturbation Experiments," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 1(6), pages 1-7, November.
    3. Fadi J. Najm & Peter DeWeirdt & Molly M. Moore & Samantha M. Bevill & Chadi A. El Farran & Kevin A. Macias & Mudra Hegde & Amanda L. Waterbury & Brian B. Liau & Peter Galen & John G. Doench & Bradley , 2023. "Chromatin complex dependencies reveal targeting opportunities in leukemia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Ki-Hong Jung & Jinwon Lee & Chris Dardick & Young-Su Seo & Peijian Cao & Patrick Canlas & Jirapa Phetsom & Xia Xu & Shu Ouyang & Kyungsook An & Yun-Ja Cho & Geun-Cheol Lee & Yoosook Lee & Gynheung An , 2008. "Identification and Functional Analysis of Light-Responsive Unique Genes and Gene Family Members in Rice," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(8), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Nazanin Esmaeili Anvar & Chenchu Lin & Xingdi Ma & Lori L. Wilson & Ryan Steger & Annabel K. Sangree & Medina Colic & Sidney H. Wang & John G. Doench & Traver Hart, 2024. "Efficient gene knockout and genetic interaction screening using the in4mer CRISPR/Cas12a multiplex knockout platform," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Joseph Bozorgmehr, 2012. "Natural selection as a paradigm of opportunism in biology," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 61-75, April.
    7. Malaguti, Giulia & Singh, Param Priya & Isambert, Hervé, 2014. "On the retention of gene duplicates prone to dominant deleterious mutations," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 38-51.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:421:y:2003:i:6918:d:10.1038_nature01198. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.