The 48th In Silico Megabank Research Seminar will be held on Friday, July 11.
This Time, we will be welcoming Dr. Takashi Makino, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University as our lecturer, and he will be speaking on “Evolutionary Study of Duplicate Genes and Application to Ecology and Medicine”.

・Date/Time: July 11(Friday) 17:00‐18:30
・Venue: Small Conference Room 2(3rd Floor), Tohoku Medical Megabank Building
・Title: Evolutionary Study of Duplicate Genes and Application to Ecology and Medicine ・Lecturer: Takashi Makino (Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University )

＊This lecture is transferable as a class in the medical research-related lecture course.

・Abstract: Gene duplication is a mutation where genes are duplicated and has drawn attention mainly as the emergent mechanism of genes with new functions. It can be assumed that increase in genes with functional differentiation through gene duplication also increases robustness toward various disruption from environment. In this study, species that we already have genome information in mammals and Drosophila were focused, and it was found that the higher the percentage of duplicate genes are in genome, more variable their habitat environment was. If examining duplicate genes in genome enables vulnerability to environmental change and invasiveness in certain species, new initiative for alien species issues and organism conservation with a totally new approach will become promising. In addition, in rare cases whole genome duplication where all genes are doubled in the process of evolution occurs instead of duplication of individual genes. Whole genome duplication enhances the robustness of biological system dramatically and has contributed to the macroevolution such as prevention of extinction and establishment of spermatophyte and vertebrates. On the other hand, duplicate genes that are kept without disappearing after whole genome duplication (ohnolog) do not contribute to the robustness; thus, it is necessary to differentiate from other duplicate genes. In fact, ohnolog has strong tendency to be involved in disorders.
In this lecture, overview of gene dosage equality, unique characteristics of ohnolog, is discussed and concrete examples of ohnolog as disease-related genes are introduced.

・Organizer: Yukuto Sato, Masao Nagasaki