In Kluyveromyces lactis a Pair of Paralogous Isozymes Catalyze the First Committed Step of Leucine Biosynthesis in Either the Mitochondria or the Cytosol
Divergence of paralogous pairs, resulting from gene duplication, plays an important role in the evolution of specialized or novel gene functions. Analysis of selected duplicated pairs has elucidated some of the mechanisms underlying the functional diversification ofSaccharomyces cerevisiae(S.cerevisiae) paralogous genes. Similar studies of the orthologous pairs extant in pre-whole genome duplication yeast species, such asKluyveromyces lactis(K. lactis) remain to be addressed. The genome ofK. lactis, an aerobic yeast, includes gene pairs generated by sporadic duplications.