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Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a speciation event (orthologs), or a duplication event (paralogs), or else a horizontal (or lateral) gene transfer event (xenologs).
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Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. coli), a gene has a similar function ( histone-like nucleoid-structuring protein) but has a separate evolutionary origin and so is an analog. A speciation event produces orthologs in the two daughter species (human and chimpanzee). Top: An ancestral gene duplication produces two paralogs ( histone H1.1 and 1.2).
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Gene phylogeny as red and blue branches within grey species phylogeny.
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