Gene family
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A gene family is a set of genes defined by presumed homology, i.e. evidence that the genes evolved from a common ancestral gene. They generally share some biochemical activity. Genes are generally categorized into families based upon shared sequence motifs and similarities in structure.
Phylogenetic techniques can be used as a more rigorous test. The positions of introns within the coding sequence can be used to infer common ancestry. Knowing the sequence of the protein encoded by a gene can allow researchers to apply methods that find similarities among protein sequences that provide more information than similarities or differences among DNA sequences. Furthermore, knowledge of the protein's secondary structure gives further information about ancestry, since the organization of secondary structural elements presumably would be conserved even if the amino acid sequence changes considerably.[citation needed] These methods often rely upon predictions based upon the DNA sequence.
If the genes of a gene family encode proteins, the term protein family is often used in an analogous manner to gene family.
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| This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Gene family. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
