Tripartite genome of all species [version 1; referees: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]

• Main Authors: MengPing Long, TaoBo Hu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: F1000 Research Ltd 2016-02-01
• Series: F1000Research
• Subjects: Theory & Simulation
• Online Access: http://f1000research.com/articles/5-195/v1

Neutral theory has dominated the molecular evolution field for more than half a century, but it has been severely challenged by the recently emerged Maximum Genetic Diversity (MGD) theory. However, based on our recent work of tripartite human genome architecture, we found that MGD theory may have overlooked the regulatory but variable genomic regions that increase with species complexity. Here we propose a new molecular evolution theory named Increasing Functional Variation (IFV) hypothesis. According to the IFV hypothesis, the genome of all species is divided into three regions that are ‘functional and invariable’, ‘functional and variable’ and ‘non-functional and variable’. While the ‘non-functional and variable’ region decreases as species become more complex, the other two regions increase.