Figure 1

Schematic illustration of the creation and relocation of the functional DPY19L2 gene. Ancient duplication of DPY19L1 prior to mammalian divergence created a duplicate copy of the gene. The ancestral locus of DPY19L2 is defined by ascertaining the gene's location in non-primate mammals. Consistently, the gene is found adjacent to DPY19L1 in a region syntenic to human Chromosome 7, suggesting the ancient duplication was in tandem. Recent inter-chromosomal duplication (grey box surrounding DPY19L2) occurred creating a second copy of DPY19L2 within a region syntenic to human Chromosome 12. Sequence evolution introduced two STOP codons (asterisks above white bars) into the ancestral gene, leading to its pseudogenization (cross-hatching indicates pseudogene). Thus, functional DPY19L2 has been relocated from its ancestral location on Chromosome 7 to a descendant region on Chromosome 12 within a recent LCR.