What is a pseudogene equivalent?
Pseudogenes are inheritable genetic elements that are similar to functional genes but are non-functional as they do not encode for proteins. Their biogenesis results from the duplication of a parental gene, or the retrotransposition of an mRNA sequence into different genomic loci.
What is the difference between a pseudogene and a gene?
Pseudogenes are defective copies of functional genes that have accumulated to an impressive number during mammalian evolution1. Dysfunctional in the sense that they cannot be used as a template for producing a protein, pseudogenes are in fact nearly as abundant as functional genes2,3.
What is a Retrogene?
Background. A retrogene is a processed copy of another gene. It derives from a gene through reverse-transcription of its messenger RNA and more or less random insertion into the organism’s genome [1].
What is an example of a pseudogene?
A well-known example of a unitary pseudogene in the human genome is the GULOP locus, which is a pseudogenized version of the gene encoding gulonolactone (L-) oxidase that processes ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and is functional (GULO) in most other vertebrates (Zhu et al., 2007).
Can a pseudogene be expressed?
Pseudogene clusters across the sample-wise compendium reveal that pseudogenes of housekeeping genes such as ribosomal proteins are widely expressed across tissue types.
What is an orphan Retrogene?
We performed a comparative analysis of human, chicken, and worm genomes to identify “orphan” retrogenes, that is, retrogenes that have replaced their progenitors. Analysis revealed that the phenomenon of replacing parental genes with their retrocopies has been taking place over the entire span of animal evolution.
What is the function of a pseudogene?
Pseudogene transcripts can be processed into short interfering RNAs that regulate coding genes through the RNAi pathway. In another remarkable discovery, it has been shown that pseudogenes are capable of regulating tumor suppressors and oncogenes by acting as microRNA decoys.
How do you identify pseudogene?
All of them identify pseudogenes based on their two key sequence properties: similarity to genes and non-functionality. In practice, the former is often characterized by the sequence similarity between a pseudogene and its closest functioning gene relative (referred to as the ‘parent gene’) in the present-day genome.
Why do most gene duplicates end up as pseudogenes?
Mutations that disrupt either the structure or the function of either of the two genes are not deleterious and will not be removed through the selection process. As a result, the gene that has been mutated gradually becomes a pseudogene and will be either unexpressed or functionless.
What is a transposon mutant?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Transposon mutagenesis, or transposition mutagenesis, is a biological process that allows genes to be transferred to a host organism’s chromosome, interrupting or modifying the function of an extant gene on the chromosome and causing mutation.