To the origins of the animal kingdom
Beware the traps of evolutionary historyWhen a gene in one species is similar to a gene in another species, the two genes very probably derive from a common ancestor and are thus termed ‘homologues.’ The more differences homologue genes have the further back in time is their ancestor. It is on the basis of these homologies that scientists manage little by little to reconstruct the Tree of Life. But evolutionary history can trip up anyone who tries to trace back its path. For example, it can happen that species carry similar genes which have not been directly inherited from a common ancestor. ‘It’s like the dolphin and the shark,’ compares Denis Baurain. ‘These animals superficially resemble each other because they respond to comparable functional constraints. Nonetheless, they are nothing like each other and do not share a recent common ancestor, the former being a mammal close to the hippopotami, the latter a cartilaginous fish which is 400 million years old.’ At the molecular level, this type of convergent evolution also occurs. Thus, two distant homologous genes can end up strongly similar to each other owing to a series of independent mutations. This is what is called homoplasy. Worse, some homologous genes are plagued by orthology issues, which means they exist in several copies in some genomes, or do not faithfully represent their genome because of gene transfer between sometimes very distant species (natural GMOs). |
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© 2007 ULi�ge
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