Cited by 429Chromosomal and Genetic VariationsEvolution and Genetic DynamicsGenomics and Phylogenetic Studies

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New genes as drivers of phenotypic evolution

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Chen, Sidi, Krinsky, Benjamin H., Long, Manyuan·2013·Nature Reviews Genetics

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Abstract

During the course of evolution, genomes acquire novel genetic elements as sources of functional and phenotypic diversity, including new genes that originated in recent evolution. In the past few years, substantial progress has been made in understanding the evolution and phenotypic effects of new genes. In particular, an emerging picture is that new genes, despite being present in the genomes of only a subset of species, can rapidly evolve indispensable roles in fundamental biological processes, including development, reproduction, brain function and behaviour. The molecular underpinnings of how new genes can develop these roles are starting to be characterized. These recent discoveries yield fresh insights into our broad understanding of biological diversity at refined resolution.

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“This way, the scientific community has realized that genetic variation, expressed as gene copy number variation, is widespread and represents an opportunity to gain insights into the genetic bases of phenotypic diversity (Chen et al., 2013).”
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Background
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“These genetic novelties usually originated either via duplication of preexisting genes or de novo from non-coding DNAs (Kaessmann, 2010; Chen et al., 2013; Andersson et al., 2015).”
Background
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“, 2017), and they play a significant role in the innovations of biological traits (Kaessmann, 2010; Chen et al., 2013).”
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“New gene origination attracted the interest of biologists back to the 1930s (Muller, 1936) and emerging evidence in the era of genomics showed that newgene acts as onemajor driver of phenotypic evolution (Chen et al., 2013).”
Background
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“The birth of new genes occurs through diverse molecular mechanisms, encompassing gene duplication, transposable element protein domestication, lateral gene transfer, gene fusion, and de novo origination [4].”
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“It was found that retrogenes signiﬁcantly contribute to the ongoing generation of new genes over evolutionary processes [7,9,10] and affect the expression of parental genes by retrogene-originated siRNA [11–13] and miRNA [14].”
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“Gene duplication is a major process leading to the birth of new genes, which contributes significantly to the adaptive evolution and phenotypic novelty of species in diverse clades (Ohno 1970; Zhang 2003; Chen et al. 2013).”
Background
Divergent Evolutionary Rates of Primate Brain Regions as Revealed by Genomics and Transcriptomics
Zhuang, X.-L., Shao, Y., Chen, C., Zhou, L., Yao, Y., Cooper, D. N., Zhang, G., Wang, W., & Wu, D. (2024) · Genome Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/gbe/evae023 · Cited by 2
“The emergence of these novel genes has contributed greatly to phenotypic evolution, and has also been important for primate brain evolution (Chen et al. 2013).”
Background

Authors: Chen, S., Krinsky, B. H., & Long, M.
Affiliations: University of Chicago (US)
Corresponding author: Long, Manyuan
ORCID: Chen, Sidi
Long, Manyuan
Venue: Nature Reviews Genetics
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2013-08-16
Volume: 14
Issue: 9
Pages: 645-660
ISSN: 1471-0056 (ISSN-L)
1471-0064
DOI: 10.1038/nrg3521
PMC: PMC4236023
OpenAlex: W2057844822
Cited by: 428
References: 137
Citations by year: 2026: 21 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 64 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 6
FWCI: 3.06
Type: journal article
Language: en
Update notices: erratum (2013-08-22)
Open access: green
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Licence: www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
www.springer.com/tdm (vor)
Locations: Nature Reviews Genetics (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders: National Institutes of Health
U.S. Public Health Service (1R01100768‑01A1)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM100768, T32GM007197)
Topics: Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Keywords: neofunctionalization, novel genes, gene birth, phenotypic evolution, genome evolution, gene duplication, developmental processes, reproduction, brain function, behavior, biodiversity, functional redundancy
MeSH terms: Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Biological Evolution, Gene Expression Regulation, Genes, Humans, Phenotype, Plants, Reproduction, Sex Characteristics, Species Specificity, Evolution, Molecular, Biodiversity

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New genes as drivers of phenotypic evolution

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