ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2017
The Goddard and Saturn Genes Are Essential for Drosophila Male Fertility and May Have Arisen De Novo.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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50 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emergence and evolution of protein-coding de novo genes.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Orthologs of an essential orphan gene vary in their capacities for function and subcellular localization in Drosophila melanogaster.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Evolution of the reproductive interactome and the origins of postmating-prezygotic reproductive divergence.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Impact of GC content on de novo gene birth.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Functional analysis of genes enriched in male reproductive organs: validation via fertility assessment of 14 knockout mouse lines.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- De Novo Genes: Current Status and Future Goals.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Recently Evolved, Stage-Specific Genes Are Enriched at Life-Stage Transitions in Flies.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2025Article
- De Novo Gene Emergence: Summary, Classification, and Challenges of Current Methods.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- DeNoFo: a file format and toolkit for standardized, comparable de novo gene annotation.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Importance of De Novo Gene Evolution to Emerging Viral Threats: The ORF10 Strain-Restricted Orphan Gene of SARS-CoV-2 Promotes Pathogenesis.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Oncogenic roles of young human de novo genes and their potential as neoantigens in cancer immunotherapy.Cell genomics · 2025Article
- Comparative single-cell analysis of transcriptional bursting reveals the role of genome organization in de novo transcript origination.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Comparative single cell analysis of transcriptional bursting reveals the role of genome organization onbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- An orphan gene is essential for efficient sperm entry into eggs in Drosophila melanogaster.Genetics · 2025Article
- Evolutionary innovations in germline biology of placental mammals identified by transcriptomics of first-wave spermatogenesis in opossum.Developmental cell · 2025Article
- An orphan gene is essential for efficient sperm entry into eggs inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Expression of Random Sequences and de novo Evolved Genes From the Mouse in Human Cells Reveals Functional Diversity and Specificity.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- De Novo Genes.Annual review of genetics · 2024Review
- The ribosome profiling landscape of yeast reveals a high diversity in pervasive translation.Genome biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
New genes arise through a variety of mechanisms, including the duplication of existing genes and the de novo birth of genes from noncoding DNA sequences. While there are numerous examples of duplicated genes with important functional roles, the functions of de novo genes remain largely unexplored. Many newly evolved genes are expressed in the male reproductive tract, suggesting that these evolutionary innovations may provide advantages to males experiencing sexual selection. Using testis-specific RNA interference, we screened 11 putative de novo genes in Drosophila melanogaster for effects on male fertility and identified two, goddard and saturn, that are essential for spermatogenesis and sperm function. Goddard knockdown (KD) males fail to produce mature sperm, while saturn KD males produce few sperm, and these function inefficiently once transferred to females. Consistent with a de novo origin, both genes are identifiable only in Drosophila and are predicted to encode proteins with no sequence similarity to any annotated protein. However, since high levels of divergence prevented the unambiguous identification of the noncoding sequences from which each gene arose, we consider goddard and saturn to be putative de novo genes. Within Drosophila, both genes have been lost in certain lineages, but show conserved, male-specific patterns of expression in the species in which they are found. Goddard is consistently found in single-copy and evolves under purifying selection. In contrast, saturn has diversified through gene duplication and positive selection. These data suggest that de novo genes can acquire essential roles in male reproduction.
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