Gene duplication is a major source of functional diversification. However, the co-existence of two paralogues with similar biochemical properties but diverging functions can lead to potentially detrimental competition between the duplicates. This phenomenon has been named “paralogue interference”. In a recent article published in "Frontiers in cellular infection and microbiology, the "genetics networks" team of LCQB has addressed this question in the human pathogen Candida glabrata. They showed that evolution selected mutations which decreased competition between two, potentially interfering, transcription factors, thus allowing the emergence of the particular modes of regulation for respiration and iron homeostasis observed in extent Saccharomycetaceae species.Link to the article

To avoid deleterious misfolding of proteins, the assembly of multiprotein complexes is tightly controlled and can either occur co-translationally in the cytoplasm or as a spatially restricted event by targetting ribosomes at particular subcellular locations. In an article recently published in Molecular Cell, Benoit Palancade's team (Institut Jacques Monod) showed that both phenomenon are at play in the biogenesis of the nucleopore, one of the largest multiprotein complex in the cells. The "genetics networks" team from LCQB contributed to this work by conducting genome-wide analyses of the interactions between nucleoporins (key nucleopore subunits) during translation Link to the article