Human core duplicon gene families: game changers or game players?

Bekpen, Cemalettin; Tautz, Diethard

The 'Morpheus' gene family, also named the nuclear pore interacting protein (NPIP) family, is one of the best studied human core duplicon gene families. It is derived from a name-giving 'low-copy repeat sequence on chromosome 16', LCR16a, that is approximately 20 kb long and expanded in the great ape-human lineage along chromosome 16 through segmental duplications [7, 14, 50] . It can be subdivided into two distinct subfamilies, NPIPA and NPIPB, which mostly differ with respect to exon 5 and the structure of amino acid repeats in the C-terminus [7] . In contrast to other core duplicon gene families, it has not been possible to identify paralogs outside of primates, i.e. it appears to be a newly evolved or rapidly evolving gene. In fact, the Morpheus gene family was shown to be one of the most rapidly evolving gene families during hominoid evolution [14] .