Interspersed Repeat - Interspersed DNA Elements Catalyze The Evolution of New Genes

Interspersed DNA Elements Catalyze The Evolution of New Genes

DNA sequences are linked together in a gene pool by gene conversion events. Insertion of an interspersed DNA element breaks this linkage, allowing independent evolution of a new gene. The interspersed repeat is an isolating mechanism enabling new genes to evolve without interference from the progenitor gene. Because insertion of an interspersed repeat is a saltatory event the evolution of the new gene will also be saltatory. Because speciation ultimately depends on the creation of new genes, this naturally causes punctuated equilibria. Interspersed repeats are thus responsible for punctuated evolution and rapid modes of evolution.

Read more about this topic:  Interspersed Repeat

Famous quotes containing the words dna, elements, evolution and/or genes:

    Here [in London, history] ... seemed the very fabric of things, as if the city were a single growth of stone and brick, uncounted strata of message and meaning, age upon age, generated over the centuries to the dictates of some now all-but-unreadable DNA of commerce and empire.
    William Gibson (b. 1948)

    But all subsists by elemental strife;
    And Passions are the elements of Life.
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    Whether you want it or not,
    your genes have a political past,
    your skin a political tone.
    your eyes a political color.
    ...
    you walk with political steps
    on political ground.
    Wislawa Szymborska (b. 1923)