Genetics: SYNERGY sheds light on gene evolution
A new method called SYNERGY, can reconstruct the history of speciation, duplication and loss events for all genes in multiple genomes. And its creators, Aviv Regev and colleagues, have already applied their strategy to the genomes of 17 Ascomycota fungal species spanning 300 million years of evolution.

SYNERGY provides a comprehensive overview of gene duplication and loss, which are known to lead to functional innovation, in the yeast lineage as well as the biological constraints governing gene evolution. The results suggest evolutionary principles, in particular for gene duplication, that are applicable not only to fungi, but more widely too.

CONTACT

Aviv Regev (Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 324 4911; E-mail: aregev@broad.mit.edu