RT Journal A1 Fischer, Gilles A1 Neuvéglise, Cécile A1 Durrens, Pascal A1 Gaillardin, Claude A1 Dujon, Bernard T1 Evolution of Gene Order in the Genomes of Two Related Yeast Species JF Genome Research JO Genome Research YR 2001 FD December 01 VO 11 IS 12 SP 2009 OP 2019 DO 10.1101/gr.212701 UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/12/2009.abstract AB Changes in gene order between the genomes of two related yeast species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum were studied. From the dataset of a previous low coverage sequencing of the S. bayanus var.uvarum genome, 35 different synteny breakpoints between neighboring genes and two cases of local gene inversion were characterized in detail. The number and the type of the chromosomal rearrangements that have lead to these differences were identified. We show that evolution of gene order in the genomes of these two yeast species is driven mainly by gene duplication onto different chromosomes followed by differential loss of the repeated copies. In addition, local gene inversions also would result from a mechanism of gene duplication, but in an inverted orientation, followed by loss of the original copy. The identification of traces of anciently duplicated genes, called relics, show that the loss of duplicates is more frequently caused by the accumulation of numerous mutations in one of the two copies than by DNA deletion. Surprisingly, gross chromosomal rearrangements such as translocations have only a minor effect on gene order reshuffling as they account for <10% of the synteny breakpoints.[The sequence data have been submitted to the EMBL Library under accession nos. AJ316068 and AJ316069.]