Answer to Question #168364 in Evolution for Brendan

Question

Choose any wild, existing species of Eukaryote that interests you. Please don’t choose humans and don’t choose a domesticated species. In studying a population of your organism, you focus on a particular gene (this does not have to be an actual gene, just a realistic one). At first it seems that your study sample is uniform at this locus but then you discover a unique, novel mutation. In other words, every single copy of the gene in your sample is identical except for the unique copy of a new variant allele that you have discovered.

 

In your own words, describe the normal function of the gene at this locus and how the function of the new allele differs, if at all. For the sake of this exercise, we will assume that the new allele is not strongly deleterious and that it will ultimately become fixed (replace the original allele) in the population. In your own words, tell the story of how and why the new variant becomes fixed. To keep your reader informed, be sure to state its frequency at three or more points in time, measured in generations.

Answer 1

Gene Chosen: VSG genes.

Functional loci in VSG genes in T. brucei have no fixed position along the genome.