Evolution is traditionally associated with a process of increasing complexity and gaining new genes. However, the explosion of the genomic era shows that gene loss and simplification is a much more frequent process in the evolution of species than previously thought, and may favour new biological adaptations that facilitate the survival of living organisms. This evolutionary driver, which seems counter-intuitive - "less is more" in genetic terms - now reveals a surprising dimension that responds to the new evolutionary concept of "less, but more", i.e. the phenomenon of massive gene losses followed by large expansions through gene duplications.
This is one of the main conclusions of an article published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution , led by a team from the Genetics Section of the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, in which teams from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have also participated. The paper identifies new evolutionary patterns, and it outlines a new scenario, marked by the enormous potential for genetic change and evolutionary adaptation driven by large-scale gene loss and duplication in living organisms.
Less, but more: a new evolutionary scenario
There are still many questions about the impact of gene loss on the diversification of species and the emergence of evolutionary innovations in the planetary tree of life. "Gene loss is a widespread mechanism throughout the biological scale and represents an evolutionary driving force that can generate genetic variability and also biological adaptations, and this has traditionally been known as the 'less is more' hypothesis", says Cristian Cañestro, leader of the study and member of the UB's consolidated research group on Evolution and Development (Evo-Devo) of the UB's Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics.
