This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Genetic redundancy is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007) |
Genetic redundancy is when two or more codons in a gene code for the same protein, so the inactivation of one of these codons due to mutation has little or no effect to the organism.
In classical Mendelian genetics experiments this manifests as a form of epistasis where the vast majority of the progeny of a dihybrid cross have normal or near normal phenotypes and only the double homozygous recessive genotype shows a severe mutant phenotype.
Genetic redundancy is not associated with gene duplication and redundant genes do not mutate faster than essential genes. However, multiple individually harmful mutations can accumulate on a redundant gene, leading eventually to a beneficial gene that would not otherwise be accessible. One example of this is the inferred evolution of hemoglobin from myoglobin in vertebrate animals.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 6 September 2008, at 02:36.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Genetic redundancy".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.