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Brief Communication

Nature Genetics 36, 577–579 (1 June 2004) | doi:10.1038/ng1355

Duplicate genes increase gene expression diversity within and between species

Zhenglong Gu , Scott A Rifkin , Kevin P White & Wen-Hsiung Li

Using microarray gene expression data from several Drosophila species and strains, we show that duplicated genes, compared with single-copy genes, significantly increase gene expression diversity during development. We show further that duplicate genes tend to cause expression divergences between Drosophila species (or strains) to evolve faster than do single-copy genes.