The Tree of Life Gets Complicated

 

This drawing helps me to understand what paralogs and orthologs are. 

In the picture above the mouse, human, and frog all have the same beta or alpha gene from their common ancestors.

Orthologs are the same genes in a species that come from a common ancestor. So in the picture above the mouse, human, and frog all have the same beta or alpha gene from their common ancestors.

Paralogs come from a duplication event in which there is a different function of the gene that is formed. The beta mouse and the alpha mouse are paralogs because there was a gene duplication early in the lineage and now the genes have two different functions (alpha and beta). 


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2020 at 8:47 PM

    Hi, Aubree!

    I really enjoyed reading your blogpost. You did a really good job explaining the differences between orthologs and paralogs. I also like that you used alpha and beta to help distinguish the genes from each other. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Catalina PerezSeptember 15, 2020 at 9:56 PM

    I enjoyed the visual you attached! It really allowed me to understand it easier! Your explanation is thorough and written well!

    ReplyDelete

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