Systematic humanization of yeast genes reveals conserved functions and genetic modularity
Abstract
How far across evolution do families of genes retain their function? Yeast and humans are separated by roughly a billion years of evolutionary history, and yet genes from one can substitute for orthologous genes in the other. To study this effect systematically, Kachroo et al. replaced over 400 essential yeast genes with their human orthologs. Roughly half of the human genes could functionally replace their yeast counterparts. Genes being in the same pathway was as important as sequence or expression similarity in determining replaceability.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aaa0769
Entities
People
- Aashiq H Kachroo
- Austin G. Meyer
- Christopher M. Yellman
- Claus O. Wilke
- Edward Marcotte
- Jon M. Laurent
Organizations
- Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- Robert A. Welch Foundation
- University of Texas at Austin