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Genetic convergent evolution; Are genetic studies wrong?
Topic Started: Jan 19 2018, 10:21 AM (365 Views)
Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu
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Do you believe that genetic convergent evolution is possible? Like if two unrelated or distantly related species to have identical genes as a result of convergent evolution? What is your opinion? And also, do you believe possible that two closely related species to be genetically very different because of environmental influence?
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Tartarus
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This is something that really could have just been asked in the questions that don't need their own topics thread.

But in answer to it I would have to say no, I don't think convergent evolution can make distantly related species have an identical genetic make up. Convergent evolution is merely a case of physical features and/or appearance looking superficially similar due to evolution coming up with similar designs for similar adaptations. But genes are something inherited from your ancestors. For different organisms to have the same genetic make up they need to come from the same ancestry.
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Archeoraptor
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this is interesting I guess, not exactly the same genes but you could evolve similar genes for the same stuff derived from the same gene,genes function is to show up proteins and thanks to these changes in genes and so proteins we can know the relationships between species
genes that evolved from the same gene but are paralogues I think
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Holben
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Entire identical genomes? Seems very unlikely.

Identical single genes? These happen now and then, such genes are called analogs. When they are derived from a single different qncestral gene they will be a kind of ortholog.

Paralogs are the results of gene duplication.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

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Uncanny Gemstar
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Could orthologs and analogs fool genetic testing though? Giving us incorrect relations between organisms?
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Holben
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If you happen to be looking at those specific genes, definitely. Phylogenetics is complicated greatly by this- it's very important to use large sample sizes and ideally highly conserved genes or else large numbers of genes from all over in order to reduce the risk of mistaking convergence for homology. But you can see how often such trees are rewritten.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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WaterWitch
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The odds of this happening are nearly 0 considering how many base pairs there are in the average genome. Is it possible? by the law of infinite probability yes. Is it plausible? Far from it.
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Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu
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Tartarus
Jan 19 2018, 06:09 PM
This is something that really could have just been asked in the questions that don't need their own topics thread.

But in answer to it I would have to say no, I don't think convergent evolution can make distantly related species have an identical genetic make up. Convergent evolution is merely a case of physical features and/or appearance looking superficially similar due to evolution coming up with similar designs for similar adaptations. But genes are something inherited from your ancestors. For different organisms to have the same genetic make up they need to come from the same ancestry.
Sorry, but I did not know where to post this thread.

I know that some of the human genes are of exogenous origin, like oncoviruses (oncogenes) who were integrated long time ago in our ancestors' genome and then inherited as our own genes. They are a possible genetic cause of carcinogenesis in humans.
Edited by Claudiu Constantin Nicolaescu, Jan 20 2018, 05:43 AM.
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