Rate of molecular evolution and pleiotropy on the evolutionary trajectories of penguin genes
Penguin genes reveal how pleiotropy shapes evolution over time - genes with more functions evolve slower, but this effect depends on a population's initial fitness.
This study used Fisher's geometric model and analyzed over 8,000 genes from 15 penguin species to investigate the relationship between pleiotropy (a gene's involvement in multiple biological processes) and the rate of molecular evolution. The findings show that this relationship develops over time, transitioning through three distinct phases. The onset of the pleiotropic effect depends on the initial fitness of the population. This work demonstrates how high-resolution genomic data can be used to test evolutionary hypotheses from theoretical models, providing insights into the complex interplay between gene function and evolutionary dynamics.