What are Pseudogenes?
Q: What are Pseudogenes?
A: Pseudogenes are non-functional genes that have lost their gene expression in the cell or their ability to code protein.
Q: When was the term "Pseudogenes" coined?
A: The term "Pseudogenes" was coined in 1977.
Q: How do Pseudogenes result?
A: Pseudogenes can result from mutations in a gene whose product is not needed for the survival of the organism.
Q: Is the DNA of Pseudogenes functional?
A: Although not protein-coding, the DNA of pseudogenes may be functional, and it may be similar to other kinds of non-coding DNA which have a regulatory role.
Q: Why are Pseudogenes often labeled as junk DNA?
A: Pseudogenes are generally thought of as the last stop for genomic material that is to be removed from the genome, so they are often labeled as junk DNA.
Q: Do Pseudogenes have any gene-like features?
A: Yes, most Pseudogenes have some gene-like features.
Q: What biological and evolutionary histories do Pseudogenes contain?
A: Pseudogenes contain fascinating biological and evolutionary histories in their sequences due to a pseudogene's shared ancestry with a functional gene. In the same way that Darwin thought of two species as having a shared common ancestry followed by millions of years of evolutionary divergence, a pseudogene and its associated functional gene also share a common ancestor and have diverged as separate genetic entities over millions of years.
