Gene details natural selection process

MADISON, Wis., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A U.S. study has determined the precise steps involved in the evolution of a yeast gene.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of evolutionary biology Sean Carroll and his former graduate student, Chris Todd Hittinger, intensively studied the divisions of a single yeast gene to better understand how it differentiates to optimally use different food sources.

Carroll explained that when a gene divides, useful mutations can arise that allow one or both genes to explore new functions, while preserving the old function.

Carroll's study showed how the yeast gene gained efficiency through duplication and division of labor. "Natural selection has taken one gene with two functions and sculpted an assembly line with two specialized genes." he said.

Added Carroll: "This is how new capabilities arise and new functions evolve. This is what goes on in butterflies and elephants and humans. It is evolution in action."

The study is detailed in the journal Nature.