Take the 2-minute tour ×


share|improve this question
You might look into the homeotic genes. They are involved in patterning embryos during development. Interestingly, in vertebrates especially, their pattern of expression on the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo (and the proximal-distal axis of the developing limb) is the same as their order on the chromosome. They are said to be colinear, though no one really knows why. –  canadianer Jan 17 at 0:44

2 Answers 2

up vote 5 down vote accepted




share|improve this answer

A group of tightly linked genes that are involved in similar molecular pathway are called supergenes.

For the pleasure to formulate a slight opposition to @shigeta's answer, I will give some examples of supergenes in eukaryotes.

  • In Primula, heterostyly is controlled by a supergene.
  • In Papilio memno, mimicry is controlled by a supergene.
  • In some species of ants, some social behaviour is caused by a supergene.
  • Sexual chromosomes (and this is quite common) can be considered as supergenes.

Globally speaking, every locus that is under antagonist sexual in different sex/castes/ecotype/whatever is likely to start forming a supergene as soon as another locus that has antagonist effect appears in its vicinity because the presence of two such genes on the same chromosomal region will select for arrest of recombination.

But of course, those represent exceptions (however common these exceptions might be) but in general, I don't think you should expect that adjacent genes would have similar functions.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer


