Marek Mutwil, MPI Golm, Germany.
host: Martin Bringmann
Gene module multiplication drives pathway diversification in plants
The survival of species depends on their ability to adapt to new environments. Adaptive innovations require genetic material mainly provided by gene duplications, which can lead to new or alternative pathways. However, the emergence of alternative pathways where sets of functionally related genes are copied is not understood. We determined the copy number of alternative pathways by finding multiplied sets genes, termed gene modules, in gene co-function networks of eight angiosperms. We found that angiosperms employ a genetic copy-and-paste principle to increase the number and diversity of gene modules. Our results reveal that almost one third of the genes of angiosperms are part of hundreds of multiplied gene modules, which are primarily generated by single gene duplications. These findings demonstrate that gene module multiplication has provided the capacity for plants to increase their repertoire of cellular functions.