Abstract:The prevalence of de novo coding genes is controversial due to the length and coding constraints. Non-coding genes, especially small ones, are freer to evolve de novo by comparison. The best examples are microRNAs (miRNAs), a large class of regulatory molecules ~22 nt in length. Here, we study 6 de novo miRNAs in Drosophila which, like most new genes, are testis-specific. We ask how and why de novo genes die because gene death must be sufficiently frequent to balance the many new births. By knocking out each m… Show more
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