EnSNAREd by the Sperm Acrosome 英文参考文献.docVIP

Open access, freely available online Synopses of Research Articles Comparing Gene Trees and Genome Trees: A Cobweb of Life? DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030347 The tree of life has long served as a useful tool for describing the history and relationships of organisms over evolutionary time. One species is represented as a branching point, or node, on the tree, and the branches represent paths of descent from a parental node.The tree diagram carries an implicit assumption that genes are transferred vertically, from genomes, Kim and colleagues estimate that HGT in?ltrates just 2% of the average microbial genome. Even when relatively common, the authors conclude, HGT events do not disrupt the integrity of the tree of life, contributing just small bits of genetic material, “much like cobwebs on tree branches.” To construct both gene trees and a parent to child, and that all the genes in a whole-genome tree for the microbes, the new species come from the ancestral species. In theory, one should be able to trace the origin of each gene in a species back to its ancestor. In practice, however, the ancestral gene is authors selected core sets of orthologous gene groups from the NIH database of clusters of orthologous genes. (Clusters are derived by comparing protein sequences encoded in complete genomes, which represent major lineages on the evolutionary tree. Each cluster corresponds to an ancient, conserved protein domain.) Kim and colleagues created gene trees for each cluster of orthologous genes they selected, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030347.g001 rarely available, so researchers look for the gene in a closely related species. (These similar genes, which diverge slightly after a speciation event, are called orthologs.) But as the tools of genome analysis became more re?ned,searches for similar genes sometimes turned up sequences that belonged to a species on a different branch of the evolutionary tree.Clearly,vertical gene Horizontal gene transfers—gene exchange