@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {10293},
      author = {Arguello, J. Roman and Chen, Ying and Yang, Shuang and  Wang, Wen and Long, Manyuan},
      title = {Origination of an X-Linked Testes Chimeric Gene by  Illegitimate Recombination in  &amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Drosophila&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;},
      journal = {PLOS Genetics},
      address = {2006-05-19},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {&lt;p&gt;The formation of chimeric gene structures provides  important routes by which novel proteins and functions are  introduced into genomes. Signatures of these events have  been identified in organisms from wide phylogenic  distributions. However, the ability to characterize the  early phases of these evolutionary processes has been  difficult due to the ancient age of the genes or to the  limitations of strictly computational approaches. While  examples involving retrotransposition exist, our  understanding of chimeric genes originating via  illegitimate recombination is limited to speculations based  on ancient genes or transfection experiments. Here we  report a case of a young chimeric gene that has originated  by illegitimate recombination in &lt;em&gt;Drosophila.&lt;/em&gt; This  gene was created within the last 2–3 million years, prior  to the speciation of &lt;em&gt;Drosophila simulans, Drosophila  sechellia,&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Drosophila mauritiana.&lt;/em&gt; The  duplication, which involved the &lt;em&gt;Bällchen&lt;/em&gt; gene on  Chromosome 3R, was partial, removing substantial 3′ coding  sequence. Subsequent to the duplication onto the X  chromosome, intergenic sequence was recruited into the  protein-coding region creating a chimeric peptide with ~ 33  new amino acid residues. In addition, a novel  intron-containing 5′ UTR and novel 3′ UTR evolved. We  further found that this new X-linked gene has evolved  testes-specific expression. Following speciation of the  &lt;span class="genus-species"&gt;D. simulans&lt;/span&gt; complex,  this novel gene evolved lineage-specifically with evidence  for positive selection acting along the &lt;span  class="genus-species"&gt;D. simulans&lt;/span&gt; branch.&lt;/p&gt;},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/10293},
}