Gene Sharing and Evolution: The Diversity of Protein Functions available in Hardcover, eBook
Gene Sharing and Evolution: The Diversity of Protein Functions
- ISBN-10:
- 0674023412
- ISBN-13:
- 9780674023413
- Pub. Date:
- 02/28/2007
- Publisher:
- Harvard University Press
- ISBN-10:
- 0674023412
- ISBN-13:
- 9780674023413
- Pub. Date:
- 02/28/2007
- Publisher:
- Harvard University Press
Gene Sharing and Evolution: The Diversity of Protein Functions
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$96.00Overview
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Joram Piatigorsky and colleagues coined the term "gene sharing" to describe the use of multifunctional proteins as crystallins in the eye lens. In Gene Sharing and Evolution Piatigorsky explores the generality and implications of gene sharing throughout evolution and argues that most if not all proteins perform a variety of functions in the same and in different species, and that this is a fundamental necessity for evolution.
How is a gene identified, by its structure or its function? Do the boundaries of a gene include its regulatory elements? What is the influence of gene expression on natural selection of protein functions, and how is variation in gene expression selected in evolution? These are neither new nor resolved questions. Piatigorsky shows us that the extensiveness of gene sharing and protein multifunctionality offers a way of responding to these questions that sheds light on the complex interrelationships among genes, proteins, and evolution.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780674023413 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Harvard University Press |
| Publication date: | 02/28/2007 |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.75(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. What Is "Gene Sharing"?
New Functions for Old Proteins and the Question of Gene Duplication
Origin of the Term "Gene Sharing"
Gene Sharing: General Definition and Implications
Protein Location and Gene Regulation
Why the Term "Gene Sharing"?
Mechanisms for Diversifying Gene Functions
Posttranslational Modifications
Conditions for Initiating Gene Sharing
Contrasting Phenotype with Protein Function
Take-Home Message
2. Multifunctions and Functional Shifts: Echos from the Past
Preadaptation, Prospective Adaptation, and Hopeful Monsters
Quirky Functional Shifts and Exaptation
Spandrels and Gene Sharing
Gene Regulation and Tinkering
Take-Home Message
3. The Elusive Concept of a "Gene"
The Classical Gene Concept
The Mendel-Morgan Chromosomal Theory of the Gene
Later Developments: One Gene/One Enzyme/One Polypeptide
The Molecular Era of the Gene: So Much Data, So Many Possibilities
Quantifying Genes before the Molecular Era
Quantifying Genes in the Molecular Era: Fewer than Expected
Noncoding Regulatory Genes
Protein Diversity
The Ambiguous Gene
The "Molecular Gene" Concept
The "Molecular Process Gene" Concept
The "Evolutionary Gene" Concept
Two Concepts for One Gene: Gene-P/Gene-D
Gene Sharing: A Concept Incorporating an "Open Gene"
Take-Home Message
4. Eyes and Lenses: Gene Sharing by Crystallins
Eye Diversity: Many Forms to Perform a Function
The Lens
Crystallins and the Optical Properties of the Lens
Diversity and Taxon-Specificity of Lens Crystallins
Crystallins Are Borrowed Proteins
The bg-Crystallins: A Superfamily with Distant Stress Connections
The Enzyme-Crystallins of Vertebrates
Crystallins of Invertebrates
Crystallin Gene Regulation in Vertebrates: A Similar Cast of Transcription Factors
Convergent Evolution of Crystallin Gene Expression
Evolutionary Dynamism of shsp/aB-Crystallin Gene Expression
Convergent Evolution of Invertebrate and Vertebrate Crystallin Promoters
Potential for Lens-Specific Promoter Activity
Convergent Evolution and Relaxed Stringency for Crystallins
Take-Home Message
5. The Enigmatic "Corneal Crystallins": Putative Cases of Gene Sharing
The Cornea
Aldehyde Dehydrogenase: A Candidate Corneal Crystallin
Other Candidate Corneal Crystallins: Transketolase, Isocitrate Dehydrogenase, and Cyclophilin
Adseverin: A Corneal Crystallin in Zebrafish
A Signaling Role for Adseverin
Corneal Gene Expression
The Refracton Hypothesis: Implications for Gene Sharing
Take-Home Message
6. Gene Sharing As a Common Event: Many Multifunctional Proteins
Glycolytic Enzymes and the Versatile Hexokinases
Citrate Synthase: An Enzyme and a Cytoskeletal Structure
Lactate Dehydrogenase: An Enzyme for All Seasons
Regulation of mRNA Translation by Enzyme Binding
Glyceraldehye-3-phosphate Dehydrogenase: Constant Surprises
Enolase: Another Versatile Protein
Bacterial Surface Enzymes
Xanthine Oxidoreductase: Enzyme and Envelope
The Thioredoxin/Ribonucleotide Reductase System and Thioredoxin Family Members: From Redox to Morphogenesis
Serum Albumin: Transport Protein, Enzymatic Vasodilator and Detoxifier
Gelsolin: Roles in Cytoskeletal Structure, Gene Expression, Cell Death, and Signal Transduction
Cytochrome c: Roles in Electron Transport, Cell Death, and Light Filtration
Take-Home Message
7. Gene Sharing during Gene Expression
Complexity of Transcription
Nuclear Receptors
Metabolic Enzymes and Gene Expression
Y-Box Proteins
Transcription Factors as Translational Regulators: Bicoid
Translation Factors for RNA Export: eIF4
Homeoproteins, Chromosomal Proteins and Actin
The Dynamic Flux of Nuclear Proteins
Take-Home Message
8. Gene Sharing As a Dynamic Evolutionary Process: Antifreeze Proteins and Hemoglobins
Antifreeze Proteins
Hemoglobins
Take-Home Message
9. Gene Duplication and the Evolution of New Functions
Gene Duplication and Retention of Redundant Genes
Birth and Death of Duplicated Genes
Adaptive Evolution by Positive Selection: New Functions after Gene Duplication
Subfunctionalization and Gene Sharing
Rapid Subfunctionalization with Slow Neofunctionalization
Gene Sharing Is Independent of Gene Duplication
Lens Crystallins: Gene Sharing at Different Stages of Duplication
Take-Home Message
10. Gene Sharing and Systems Biology: Implications and Speculations
Networks
Evolvability
Selective Pressure Affecting Gene Regulation
Functional Switching and the Notion of Functional "Trespassing"
Functional Noise
Genetic Differences in Levels of Gene Expression
The Molecular Clock
Gene Knockout Experiments
Gene Deletion of b-Catenin
Horizontal Gene Transfer
Take-Home Message
11. Recapitulations: Ambiguities and Possibilities
Ambiguity of Cause and Effect
Natural Selection Versus Random Drift
Gene Sharing and Robustness: When Is a Mutation Neutral?
Inconsistency with Design
Naming Is Not Knowing
The Question of Tissue Homology
Phylogenetic Trees: The Complication of Function
Defining and Counting Genes
Definition of Polypeptide Function: The Ambiguity of Molecular Mechanism
Between Genotype and Phenotype
Gene Sharing and the Importance of Research on Diverse Species
Medical Implications
Glossary
References
Index
What People are Saying About This
I have not encountered such an interesting, intellectually stimulating and exciting biological monograph in many years. Piatigorsky discusses the phenomenon of gene sharing on all levels, the molecular and cellular, as well as in the context of ìsystem biologyî and finally its ramifications on our views on evolution. He manages to concentrate a tremendous amount of information in this book and whatever he says has experimental backing. His precise and detailed technical descriptions are presented in a very readable style that also projects a sense of wonder and surprise. This is an extraordinary book that I hope will have an important impact on future biological thinking.
It has been a dogma of evolutionary biology that gene duplication precedes the evolution of new gene and protein function. Joram Piatigorsky stands this scenario on its head by showing that, in the case of lens crystallins and probably other protein families, functional diversity can precede gene duplication. His revolutionary perspective provides unexpected insight into how biological systems evolve.
— Austin Hughes, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina
Every textbook of molecular evolution has a section on gene sharing but this is the first book entirely devoted to the topic. Piatigorsky considers almost all aspects of gene sharing, provides numerous examples, and discusses the importance and contribution of gene sharing to evolution. He argues forcefully that gene sharing is widespread in many genomes. His arguments will likely alter the prevailing view of gene sharing as a unique phenomenon to crystallins.
— Jianzhi George Zhang, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan
I have not encountered such an interesting, intellectually stimulating and exciting biological monograph in many years. Piatigorsky discusses the phenomenon of gene sharing on all levels, the molecular and cellular, as well as in the context of ìsystem biologyî and finally its ramifications on our views on evolution. He manages to concentrate a tremendous amount of information in this book and whatever he says has experimental backing. His precise and detailed technical descriptions are presented in a very readable style that also projects a sense of wonder and surprise. This is an extraordinary book that I hope will have an important impact on future biological thinking.
— Dr. Alex Keynan, Professor at Hebrew University and Special Adviser to the President of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences
This book introduces, explains and elaborates on the very interesting fact that some genes produce proteins that serve different (and important) functions in the same organism. This is a remarkable story well told and interesting from both evolutionary and functional perspectives.
— Russell D. Fernald, Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University