QUESTION

Differentiate between tandem, reverse tandem and

terminal tandem duplication. Explain the consequences
of each type of duplication.

DUPLICATION
The presence of a part of a chromosome in excess of the
normal complement is known as duplication. Duplication
of even a small part of chromosome segment may cause
modification of phenotype.
TYPES OF DUPLICATION
Extra segment in a chromosome may arise in a variety of
ways;
 Tandem duplication: this type of duplication is
adjacent to each other.
 Reverse tandem: here, the duplication results in
gene arranged in opposite order of the original
chromosome arrangement.
 Terminal tandem: this kind of duplication occurs at
the end of a chromosome.
 CONSEQUENCES OF DUPLICATION
1. PHENOTYPIC VARIATION: an example is the
Drosophila eye shape allele that reduces the number
of eye facets, giving the eye a slit-like rather than
oval appearance. The bar allele results from a
duplication of small segment of the X chromosome.

2. GENE REDUNDANCY: this also results from gene

duplication. It is the existence of multiple gene in a
genome of an organism that perform the same
function. Such duplication events are responsible for
many sets of homologous genes.
For example, r RNA is needed in higher amount in
metabolically active cells to support protein synthesis.
A single copy of the gene encoding r RNA is inadequate
in many cells, therefore multiple copies of genes codes
for r RNA and the phenomenon is called gene
redundancy.

3. EVOLUTION: gene duplication is essential to the

origin of new gene during evolution. If a gene is
duplicated in the germ layer, major mutational
changes in this extra copy will be tolerated in future
generations because the original gene provides the
genetic information for its essential function thereby
allowing the duplicated gene to acquire many
mutational changes over extended period of time.
Over long evolutionary periods, the duplicated gene
may change sufficiently so that its product assumes a
divergent role in the cell which may impart an
adaptive advantage to organisms, enhancing their
fitness.