(1) Plant Biology Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA;(2) Plant Pathology Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
Abstract:
Background
In eukaryotic genomes, most genes are members of gene families. When comparing genes from two species, therefore, most genes in one species will be homologous to multiple genes in the second. This often makes it difficult to distinguish orthologs (separated through speciation) from paralogs (separated by other types of gene duplication). Combining phylogenetic relationships and genomic position in both genomes helps to distinguish between these scenarios. This kind of comparison can also help to describe how gene families have evolved within a single genome that has undergone polyploidy or other large-scale duplications, as in the case of Arabidopsis thaliana – and probably most plant genomes.
