In a recent study, published in journal BMC Systems Biology, Sato et al. suggest that an increase in gene dosage resulting from repeated gene duplication may also confer significant, yet unexpected, effect on the functions of subcellular networks. Their findings indicate that repeated duplication of phosphodiesterase (PDE) genes in sticklebacks has not led to new gene functions, but has resulted in increased gene dosage and expression in new organs such as the nose, where effects on olfactory transduction are predicted. Authors not only analyzed the evolution of multiple stickleback phosphodiesterase (PDE, EC: 3.1.4.17) 1C genes involved in the cAMP signaling pathway, but also used gene expression analysis and in silico simulation to show the effect of higher dosage. Further,

gene expression analysis suggested that the derived isoforms acquired expression in new organs, implying their neofunctionalization in terms of expression patterns. In addition, at least seven isoforms of the stickleback PDE1C were co-expressed with olfactory-type G-proteins in the nose, suggesting that PDE1C dosage is increased in the stickleback olfactory transduction (OT) pathway. In silico simulations of OT implied that the increased PDE1C dosage extends the longevity of the depolarization signals of the olfactory receptor neuron.

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