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Figure 2 | Genome Biology

Figure 2

From: The rarity of gene shuffling in conserved genes

Figure 2

Representative examples of shuffled genes identified. (a) Bacillus anthracis M23/M37 peptidase BA1903, the result of a domain exchange between B. cereus genes BC5234 (12098), a N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase and BC1480(08460.1), another M23/M37 peptidase. (b) A fusion of the fission yeast genes his7 (a phosphoribosyl-AMP cyclohydrolase) and his2 (a histidinol dehydrogenase) to produce the budding yeast his4 gene, which is involved in histidine biosynthesis. The budding yeast gene appears to combine the functions of the two fission yeast genes [35]. (c) The fruit fly gene Aats-tyr is a tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (Flybase annotation) [36]. It is a probable recombination product of a predicted worm methionyl-tRNA synthetase gene mrs-1 (WormBase annotation) [37] and a second worm gene Y105E8A.19 of unknown function. (d) C. elegans gene ceh-20, which encodes a homeodomain protein. This gene appears to be the result of a domain exchange between the Drosophila genes exd (extradenticle, also a homeodomain protein) and Pkg21D (cGMP-dependant protein kinase). (e) E. coli b4343, a hypothetical protein apparently formed via a domain exchange between Salmonella genes STY4850 (annotated as a DEAD-box helicase-related protein) and STY4851 (hypothetical protein). The numbers in the recombinant gene box are amino-acid positions in the protein product, indicating the portion of the protein derived from each of its 'parental' proteins.

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