Question

The different versions of the alpha globin gene in the human genome were created by a process of gene duplication. Looking at figure 8.17 and 8.18, is it possible to tell whivh of the pseudogenes was created first and which is more recent?

UX, X APAE IO Abbcode Normal AxBxDate AaBbCcDc Aabbedt AaBb ACADE No Spacing Heading! Heading? FIGURE 8.17 insertions or deletions Mutations that ruin protein- = frameshifts. coding sequences Alphal ATGGTGCTGTCTCCTGCCGACAAGACCAACGTCAAGGCCGCCTGG Alpha2 ATGGYGCTGTCTCCTGCCGACAAGACCA CGTCAAGGCCGCCTGG Alpha2PS ATG-CTCAGCCCCCAGCAG-CGCGCCCAA-ATCGCGGAGGTCTGG Zetal ATGTCTCTGACCAAGACTGACAGGACCATCATTGTGTCCATGTGG ZetaPS JATGTCTCTGACCAAGACTTAGGGGACCATCATTGTGTCCATGTGG stop codon = nonsense mutation * English (United States) Focus D

Answer 1

From the figures, it can be concluded that Alpha1 and Alpha2 are highly conserved.
On the other hand, Zeta1 and ZetaPS also show high similarity but we see a nonsense mutation there.
In case of Alpha2PS it can be noticed that it shares least similarity with the other sequences and has the highest mutations affecting it.
So, if we are to to tell which of the pseudogenes was created first and which is more recent, we can probably order these sequences from old(first created) to new(recently created) as
Alpha1, Alpha2, Zeta1, ZetaPS, Alpha2PS