Exploring the early origins of the synapse by comparative genomics

One set of evolutionary features that has received less attention than the evolution of genes or species is the evolution of cellular machines, the self-contained structures in cells with dedicated functions. Here I suggest that domain expansion through shuffling, duplication, and changes in protein expression level are critical drivers in the evolution of cellular machines. Once established, evolutionary change in these cellular machines tends to occur by paralogy or expansion and modification of the existing core genes. A comparative genomics approach to one cellular machine—the post-synaptic complex—provided preliminary validation of these views. A comparative genomics approach to the entire cellulome may reveal the diversity of cellular machines and their inter-relationships.

• Publication year

  2008

• Venue

  Biology Letters

• Publication date

  2008-12-02

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0594PMID 19049956PMCID 2657765
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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