Molecular drive is a term coined by Gabriel Dover in 1982 to describe

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ary processes that change the genetic composition of a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

through DNA turnover mechanisms. Molecular drive operates independently of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

and

genetic drift Genetic drift, also known as random genetic drift, allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the Allele frequency, frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene va ...

. The best-known such process is the

concerted evolution Concerted evolution is the phenomenon where paralogous genes within one species are more closely related to one another than to members of the same gene family in closely related species. In other terms, when specific members of a family are inves ...

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

s present in many tandem copies, such as those for

ribosomal RNA Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes. Ribosomal RNA is transcribed from ribosomal ...

s or silk moth egg shell

chorion The chorion is the outermost fetal membrane around the embryo in mammals, birds and reptiles (amniotes). It is also present around the embryo of other animals, like insects and molluscs. Structure In humans and other therian mammals, the cho ...

proteins, in

sexually reproducing Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete (haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote that d ...

species. The concept has been proposed to extend to the diversification of multigene families. The mechanisms involved include

gene conversion Gene conversion is the process by which one DNA sequence replaces a homologous sequence such that the sequences become identical after the conversion. Gene conversion can be either allelic, meaning that one allele of the same gene replaces another ...

, unequal crossing-over, transposition, slippage replication and RNA-mediated exchanges. Because

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s changing the sequence of one copy are less common than deletions, duplications and replacement of one copy by another, the copies gradually come to resemble each other much more than they would if they had been evolving independently. Concerted evolution can be unbiased, in which case every version has an equal probability of being the one that replaces the others. However, if the molecular events have any bias favouring one version of the sequence over others, that version will dominate the process and eventually replace the others. The name 'molecular drive' reflects the similarity of the process with what was originally the better-known process of

meiotic drive Meiotic drive is a type of intragenomic conflict, whereby one or more loci within a genome will affect a manipulation of the meiotic process in such a way as to favor the transmission of one or more alleles over another, regardless of its phenot ...

. Molecular drive can also act in

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

, where parasexual processes such as natural

transformation Transformation may refer to: Science and mathematics In biology and medicine * Metamorphosis, the biological process of changing physical form after birth or hatching * Malignant transformation, the process of cells becoming cancerous * Trans ...

cause DNA turnover.

TRAM

According to

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, TRAM is a genetic system that has features of

non-mendelian inheritance Non-Mendelian inheritance is any pattern in which traits do not segregate in accordance with Mendelian inheritance#Mendel's laws, Mendel's laws. These laws describe the inheritance of traits linked to single genes on chromosomes in the nucleus. ...

Turnover, copy number and functional Redundancy And Modulatory. To date all regulatory regions ( promoters) and

s that have been examined in detail at the molecular level, have TRAM characteristics. As such, part of their evolutionary history will have been influenced by the molecular drive process.

Adoptation

According to

, Adoptation is an evolved feature of an organism that contributes to its viability and reproduction (established by molecular drive) and that adopts some previously inaccessible component of the environment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molecular Drive Evolutionary biology Molecular evolution Non-Darwinian evolution