Your browser version may not work well with NCBI's Web applications. More information here...
1: Nature. 2003 Jul 10;424(6945):147-51.Click here to read Links

Transcription regulation and animal diversity.

Levine M, Tjian R.

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Genetics and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of California, Berkeley, 401 Barker Hall, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. mlevine@uclink4.berkeley.edu

Whole-genome sequence assemblies are now available for seven different animals, including nematode worms, mice and humans. Comparative genome analyses reveal a surprising constancy in genetic content: vertebrate genomes have only about twice the number of genes that invertebrate genomes have, and the increase is primarily due to the duplication of existing genes rather than the invention of new ones. How, then, has evolutionary diversity arisen? Emerging evidence suggests that organismal complexity arises from progressively more elaborate regulation of gene expression.

PMID: 12853946 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]