Fugu genome analysis provides evidence for a whole-genome duplication early during the evolution of ray-finned fishes. Christoffels A, Koh EG, Chia JM, Brenner S, Aparicio S, Venkatesh B. Mol Biol Evol. 2004 Jun;21(6):1146-51. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msh114.

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Evolution is a complex and random phenomenon that has been in action since the dawn of time, but how does it work? This is a question that thousands of scientists have sought to answer and are still answering to this. In 1970, geneticist Susumu Ohno proposed whole genome duplication as a driver for evolution, inspiring many investigations into genetic replication.

In particular, one group of scientists aimed to test the theory of whole genome evolution in terms of teleosts – an evolutionary group of ray finned fish that diverged from lobe finned fish. They set out to test two hypotheses, a) that teleosts experienced whole genome before they diverged from lobe finned fish, or b) that they duplicated after.

In particular, the Fugu was used as the model organism and as such its genome was analysed and compared to humans to search for paralogous regions which are sections of DNA from common ancestors. Multiple of these paralogons indicate that whole genome duplication did in fact occur. Using this, these researchers investigated when this occurred using a molecular clock, and determined that teleosts experienced whole genome duplication 350 million years ago before the teleosts diverged from lobe finned fish. This confirmed their first proposed hypothesis.

It may seem less than relevant, but this research provided a much better understanding of the genomes of marine teleosts in the context of whole genome duplication. Investigation into whole genome duplication opens many doors including some into cancer research, with researchers recently identifying that whole genome duplication occurs in 30% of cancerous tumours. Overall, the investigation into whole genome duplication and its implications in both past and future evolution has been incredibly influential in the journey to understanding evolution.

Creator: Phoebe Bird-Cassey

References:
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Christoffels A, Koh EG, Chia JM, Brenner S, Aparicio S, Venkatesh B. Fugu genome analysis provides evidence for a whole-genome duplication early during the evolution of ray-finned fishes. Mol Biol Evol. 2004;21(6):1146-5111.
Hokamp K, McLysaght A, Wolfe KH. The 2R hypothesis and the human genome sequence. J Struct Funct Genomics. 2003;3(1-4):95-110.
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Ohno S. Evolution by Gene Duplication. 1970;98-106. New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media.