During their long evolutionary history viruses generated many proteins de novo by a
mechanism called “overprinting”. Overprinting is a process in which critical nucleotide …

Overlapping genes are commonplace in viruses and play an important role in their function
and evolution. However, aside from studies on specific groups of viruses, relatively little is …

Background Overlapped genes originate by a) loss of a stop codon among contiguous
genes coded in different frames; b) shift to an upstream initiation codon of one of the …

Overlapping genes represent a fascinating evolutionary puzzle, since they encode two
functionally unrelated proteins from the same DNA sequence. They originate by a …

It is widely assumed that new proteins are created by duplication, fusion, or fission of
existing coding sequences. Another mechanism of protein birth is provided by overlapping …

Overlapping genes represent an intriguing puzzle, as they encode two proteins whose
ability to evolve is constrained by each other. Overlapping genes can undergo “symmetric …

Overlapping genes in viruses maximize the coding capacity of their genomes and allow the
generation of new genes without major increases in genome size. Despite their importance …

Two lines of the bacteriophage T7 were grown to fix mutations indiscriminately, using a
combination of population bottlenecks and mutagenesis. Complete genome sequences …

Parallel molecular evolution is the independent evolution of the same genotype or
phenotype from distinct ancestors. The simple genomes and rapid evolution of many viruses …

The possibility of creating novel genes from pre-existing sequences, known as overprinting,
is a widespread phenomenon in small viruses. Here, the origin and evolution of gene …