Gene duplications in H. influenzae

摘要

SIR -- The sequences and structures of proteins characteristic of late evolution indicate that most, and possibly all, have arisen through a process of gene duplication, mutation and, in some cases, recombination. At some point, this process became more important for the evolution of modern organisms than the ab initio creation of new proteins. The recent sequencing of the complete genome of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, which identified some 1,680 protein sequences (two-fifths of the numberexpected for Escherichia coli and about one-fortieth that in humans), has allowed the estimation that at least one-third of the proteins in this small bacterial genome arose from gene duplication.