Gene duplication and evolutionary novelty in plants

Abstract

Duplication is a prominent feature of plant genomic architecture. This has led many researchers to speculate that gene duplication may have played an important role in the evolution of phenotypic novelty within plants. Until recently, however, it was difficult to make this connection. We are now beginning to understand how duplication has contributed to adaptive evolution in plants. In this review we introduce the sources of gene duplication and predictions of the various fates of duplicates. We also highlight several recent and pertinent examples from the literature. These examples demonstrate the importance of the functional characteristics of genes and the source of duplication in influencing evolutionary outcome.