Indeed, the rise of farming has been linked to evolutionary changes in genes for other enzymes, such as amylase, which breaks down starch, and lactase, which breaks down lactose in milk.
DUF1220 protein domains exhibit the most extreme human lineage specific (HLS) copy number increase of any protein coding region in the human genome and have recently been linked to evolutionary and pathological changes in brain size (e.g., 1q21‐associated microcephaly).
This, together with recent data from an attaching and effacing pathogen-host system demonstrating that virulence mediated by type III effectors is positively selected [37], suggests that reshaping effector content by horizontal gene transfer is linked to evolutionary success.
Application of this method on a genome-wide scale, where it can be integrated into DNA-based methods as well as candidate gene approaches, offers a powerful approach for future studies in the field of antimalarial resistance, as well as other areas of research that are linked to evolutionary biology in this important genus.
Zimmerman and Pope [ 6] documented differences in timing and degree of development of the style between Crotalus atrox, C. adamanteus, and Sistrurus catenatus, providing evidence that heterochronic changes in strength and modulation of genetic pathways involved in style formation may be linked to evolutionary changes in the rattlesnake rattle.
For example, fixed human differences in the coding regions of the transcription factor FOXP2 and myosin heavy chain genes have been linked to the evolutionary development of speech in humans and the anatomy of the jaw, respectively [86], [87].
While this extreme DUF1220 copy number increase has been linked to the evolutionary expansion of the human brain [ 16, 17], the many interspersed and tandem DUF1220 paralogs in the 1q21 region are thought to be major contributors to 1q21 genomic instability leading to numerous disorders [ 16].
Significantly, although relatively subtle changes have been linked to such important evolutionary innovations, it appears that functional conservation of gene expression is also compatible with major changes in the structure of transcription control regions (Hare et al., 2008).
Gene expression divergence has been linked to several gene features such as evolutionary rates, codon bias, intron size, coding sequence length, and amino acid composition.
Recent studies have shown that evolutionary fixation of gene duplications is linked to the evolutionary rates of genes.
