Whole genome duplication

Robinson-Rechavi, M., O. Marchand, H. Escriva and V. Laudet. An ancestral whole-genome duplication may not have been responsible for the abundance of duplicated fish genes. Curr. Biol. 11 R458-R459, 2001. 

Hagman, A., Sail, T., Compagno, C., and Piskur, J. (2013) Yeast make-accumulate-consume life strategy evolved as a multi-step process that predates the whole genome duplication. PLoS One, 8, e68734. 

Conant, G. C., Wolfe, K. H. (2007). Increased glycolytic flux as an outcome of whole-genome duplication in yeast. Molecular System Biology, 3, 1-12. http //dx.doi.org/ 10.1038/msb4100170. 

If you want to know what people reaUy think, look at their mistakes. One mistake in science journalism is misuse of the word mistake. Two examples that came across my browser were 500-MiUion-Year-01d Mistake Led to Humans and Accident of Evolution Allows Fungi to Thrive in Our Bodies. The first article tells how whole-genome duplications preceded the evolution of the backbone. The second is about how a fungus infected humans after it evolved a tough coat and protective pigments. 

Each of these mistakes is not necessarily a mistake at all, but is part of a reasonable and predictable genetic response from a broad perspective. Biologist James A. Shapiro gives several examples in which drastic genetic manipulations, including whole-genome duplications, are turned on in plants to accelerate evolution and increase the chances of survival. Whole-genome duplications can be a predictable response to environmental stress. 

Whole genome duplications happened when plants learned to produce flowers. .. K. Adams. Genomic clues to the ancestral flowering plant. 2013. Science 342(6165), p. 1456. DOl 10.1126/science.l248709. 

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