Evolution of genes and genomes

Gene duplications at the origin of vertebrates generated the extant gene families. Lower chordates are good models to understand the genetic basis of vertebrate functional complexity because many genes are in a single-copy status and functional redundancies are greatly simplified. We have focussed on the medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase family and the genes involved in retinol metabolism. We have gathered data at the gene and protein level, exon-intron distribution, expression patterns, and genome and EST databases, and proposed the evolutionary pathways leading to ADH class multiplicity in vertebrate lineages. Concerning retinoid metabolism, we have reported novel members of the retinol and retinaldehyde dehydrogenase families in lower chordates and approached their functional characterization. Finally, we study the structure, frequency, phylogenetic relationships and ability to transpose of one type of repetitive DNA sequences -the non-LTR retrotransposons- in amphioxus, ascidians and hagfish to find out how these elements contributed to the vertebrate genomes.


Senior Researchers
Roser Gonzàlez
Ricard Albalat
Neus Cols


PhD Students
Laura Godoy
Jon Permanyer


Collaborators
Hector Escrivà (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, CNRS, France)
Jaume Farrés (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Hans Jörnvall (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden)
Rudolf Ladenstein (Novum Karolinska, Stockholm, Sweden)
Vincent Laudet (Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, CNRS, France)
Xavier Parés (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Jan-Olof Winberg (Faculty of Medecine, University of Tromsø, Norway)