Evidence for escape from adaptive conflict?

Todd Barkman and Jianzhi Zhang ()
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Todd Barkman: Western Michigan University
Jianzhi Zhang: University of Michigan, 1075 Natural Science Building, 830 North University Avenue

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7274, E1-E1

Abstract: Abstract Arising from: D. L. Des Marais & M. D. Rausher Nature 454, 762–765 (2008)10.1038/nature07092 ; Des Marais & Rausher reply Gene duplication is the primary source of new genes1, but the molecular evolutionary mechanisms underlying functional divergence of duplicate genes are not well understood2. Des Marais and Rausher3 argued that data from plant dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (DFR) genes support the model that gene duplication allows the escape from adaptive conflict (EAC) among several functions of a single-copy progenitor gene4. As the authors indicated, the key predictions of EAC, in comparison to other models1,5,6, are that (i) adaptive changes occur in both daughter genes after duplication, and (ii) these adaptive changes must improve ancestral functions. Furthermore, EAC indicates that (iii) the improvement of several ancestral functions is constrained before duplication, although this last point was not explicitly stated. Here we show that contrary to the predictions of EAC, only one of the duplicated DFR lineages exhibited adaptive sequence changes. Owing to the lack of information on enzyme concentrations3 we question the accuracy of enzyme activity comparisons, and it is thus not clear that any ancestral function has been improved in either lineage.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08663

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