Dr. long Manyuan, an outstanding professor of Edna K. Papazian, Department of ecology and evolution, University of Chicago, USA, was invited to visit our laboratory and hold an academic lecture on March 18. The topic of the lecture is: denovo gene origin: evidence, read and pattern.

Professor Long Manyuan's lecture started with the hypothesis of the origin of genes and the existing questions, and introduced systematically to you step by step. His team used the latest rice 3K genome sequencing data to obtain a series of evidences of the origin of new genes in rice through the self-developed genome collinearity analysis method. Their latest research results show that in the past 14 million years of evolutionary history, about 50 new genes have been produced every one million years (based on two exotaxa); at this rate, about 5 million years can produce a new viable cell (the latest research results show that a cell only needs about 250 gene expression to survive); and new genes can be produced More than 90% of them are generated by the evolution of base insertion or deletion from non transcriptional sequences, and they have detected the synthesis of these new gene translation peptides in different tissues. Their research also surprisingly found that the male reproductive organs produced the most new genes, suggesting that the evolution of rice and other organisms is closely related to sexual selection. Relevant research results have been published in nature ecology & Evolution (2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0822-5). At the report meeting, Professor Long Manyuan also had a heated discussion and exchange with the teachers and students at the meeting.

personal information:

Professor Long Manyuan was admitted to Sichuan Agricultural University in 1978 and went to the University of California at Davis in 1987 for further study. In 1990, Professor long and his colleagues discovered a two million year old young gene, which successfully demonstrated the origin of a new gene to human beings for the first time. The new gene he discovered was later named "Jingwei" by Professor long. In 1993, Professor Long came to Harvard University to learn from the famous molecular biologist Walter Gilbert. In 1997, he completed the proof of the mechanism represented by the origin of "Jingwei" gene from special to universal significance. Now, the knowledge of the origin of new genes has been written into the main textbooks of evolutionary biology in Europe and America. Professor Long was Secretary General of the international society for molecular biology and evolution and chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 21st International Congress on molecular biology and evolution. The research results of his team have been published in nature, cell, science and their sub journals for many times. See http://longlab.uchicago.edu/ .