Skip Navigation


MBE Advance Access originally published online on June 6, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2006 23(9):1715-1723; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl034
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/9/1715    most recent
msl034v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (13)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sémon, M.
Right arrow Articles by Duret, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sémon, M.
Right arrow Articles by Duret, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

Evolutionary Origin and Maintenance of Coexpressed Gene Clusters in Mammals

Marie Sémon1 and Laurent Duret

Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

E-mail: semonm{at}tcd.ie.

Gene order is not random with regard to gene expression in mammals: coexpressed genes, and in particular housekeeping genes, are clustered along chromosomes more often than expected by chance. To understand the origin of these clusters and to quantify the impact of this phenomenon on genome organization, we analyzed clusters of coexpressed genes in the human and mouse genomes. We show that neighboring genes experience continuous concerted expression changes during evolution, which leads to the formation of coexpressed gene clusters. The pattern of expression within these clusters evolves more slowly than the genomic average. Moreover, by studying gene order evolution, we show that some clusters are maintained by natural selection and, therefore, have a functional significance. However, we also demonstrate that some coexpressed gene clusters are the result of neutral coevolution effects, as illustrated by the clustering of genes escaping inactivation on the X chromosome. Moreover, we show that, although statistically significant, constraints on gene orders have a limited impact on mammalian genome organization, affecting only 3–5% of the pool of human and murine genes. It had been hypothesized that coexpressed gene clusters might correspond to large chromatin domains. In contradiction, we find that most of these clusters contain only 2 genes whose coexpression may be due to transcriptional read-through or the activity of bidirectional promoters.

Key Words: cluster • coexpressed genes • chromatin • gene order


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
E. Franck, T. Hulsen, M. A. Huynen, W. W. de Jong, N. H. Lubsen, and O. Madsen
Evolution of Closely Linked Gene Pairs in Vertebrate Genomes
Mol. Biol. Evol., September 1, 2008; 25(9): 1909 - 1921.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
B.-Y. Liao and J. Zhang
Coexpression of Linked Genes in Mammalian Genomes Is Generally Disadvantageous
Mol. Biol. Evol., August 1, 2008; 25(8): 1555 - 1565.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Genome ResHome page
M. Huvet, S. Nicolay, M. Touchon, B. Audit, Y. d'Aubenton-Carafa, A. Arneodo, and C. Thermes
Human gene organization driven by the coordination of replication and transcription
Genome Res., September 1, 2007; 17(9): 1278 - 1285.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Genome ResHome page
H. J. Gierman, M. H.G. Indemans, J. Koster, S. Goetze, J. Seppen, D. Geerts, R. van Driel, and R. Versteeg
Domain-wide regulation of gene expression in the human genome
Genome Res., September 1, 2007; 17(9): 1286 - 1295.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
B. P. Cusack and K. H. Wolfe
Not Born Equal: Increased Rate Asymmetry in Relocated and Retrotransposed Rodent Gene Duplicates
Mol. Biol. Evol., March 1, 2007; 24(3): 679 - 686.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.