DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary Fate of Gene Duplications in Morning Glories (Ipomoea)

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This research by Dr. Mark Rausher and David Des Marais seeks to understand what happens over evolutionary time when an organism has two copies of the same genetic material. The general logic is that if, historically, an organism only needs one copy of a gene to survive, then a second copy of the same gene will be unnecessary. Three general fates have been proposed for what might happen to these duplicated pairs: one copy might keep functioning as it did as a single copy while the second copy experiences mutations that either cause it to lose function or to gain novel function, or the two copies might end up sharing the ancestral functions and thereby both become necessary for the organism's survival. These latter two fates provide a rich source for the origin of new features that lead to an increase in biological diversity. The proposed research is valuable to the scientific community because it will help explain some of the findings of recent genome sequencing projects; namely, why do duplicate genes persist and what are they doing? The project will also help to expand interest in exploring natural observations using a scientific approach through training high school and college students who routinely spend summers in our laboratory.