Genome size in mammals and birds shows remarkably little interspecific variation compared
with other taxa. However, genome sequencing has revealed that many mammal and bird …

The formation of new genes during evolution is an important motor of functional innovation,
but the rate at which new genes originate and the likelihood that they persist over longer …

Gene duplication is widely regarded as a major mechanism modeling genome evolution
and function. However, the mechanisms that drive the evolution of the two, initially …

Abstract Background Low-complexity regions (LCRs) in proteins are tracts that are highly
enriched in one or a few amino acids. Given their high abundance, and their capacity to …

Phenotypic differences between individuals and species are controlled in part through
differences in expression of a relatively conserved set of genes. Genes expressed in the …

Promoters are central to the regulation of gene expression. Changes in gene regulation are
thought to underlie much of the adaptive diversification between species and phenotypic …

Evolutionary changes in genome size result from the combined effects of mutation, natural
selection, and genetic drift. Insertion and deletion mutations (indels) directly impact genome …

Large-scale evolutionary studies often require the automated construction of alignments of a
large number of homologous gene families. The majority of eukaryotic genes can produce …

Background Metazoans transcribe many long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are poorly
conserved and whose function remains unknown. This has raised the questions of what …

Background Proteins are composed of a combination of discrete, well-defined, sequence
domains, associated with specific functions that have arisen at different times during …