直向同源序列在不同的物种中具有相近甚至相同的功能、相似的调控途径, 扮演相似甚至相同的角色, 而且, 绝大多数核心生物功能就是由相当数量的直向同源基因所承担, 它是基因组序列的功能注释与分析中最可靠的选择, 其特殊的生物学特性决定: 利用直向同源序列开展比较基因组学研究, 必将为探测不同生物在进化过程中重要功能基因的出现、表达和丢失提供线索。文章从直向同源基因的基本特性、直向同源序列与比较基因组学的关系、应用直向同源序列开展比较基因组学相关研究方法、现状等展开综述。
关键词: 直向同源; 比较基因组学; 生物学特性; 数据库
The orthologs have similar or even identical functions in different species, share the anological regulatory pathways, and play the close or even same role among species. Furthermore, the vast majority of the biological core func-tions were assumed to a considerable number of orthologous genes in organisms. Orthologs was the most reliable choices for functional annotation and analysis of genomic sequences, whose unique biological characteristics demonstrated that comparative genomics research based on orthologs will certainly provide clues for detecting the origin, expression, and loss of important functional genes during the biological evolution in different organisms. In this review, the fundamental charac-teristics of orthologous genes and the relationship between the orthologs and comparison genomics were recounted. The corresponding approaches and the current status in comparative genomic research based on the orthologs were summarized.
