Find in Library

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recently originalization was proposed to be an effective way of duplicate-gene preservation, in which recombination provokes the high frequency of original (or wild-type) allele on both duplicated loci. Because the high frequency of wild-type allele might drive the arising and accumulating of advantageous mutation, it is hypothesized that recombination might enlarge the probability of neofunctionalization (P_neo) of duplicate genes. In this article this hypothesis has been tested theoretically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results show that through originalization recombination might not only shorten mean time to neofunctionalizaiton, but also enlarge P_neo.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Therefore, recombination might facilitate neofunctionalization via originalization. Several extensive applications of these results on genomic evolution have been discussed: 1. Time to nonfunctionalization can be much longer than a few million generations expected before; 2. Homogenization on duplicated loci results from not only gene conversion, but also originalization; 3. Although the rate of advantageous mutation is much small compared with that of degenerative mutation, P_neocannot be expected to be small.</p>