Gene Products With Multiple Functions

[muchado]

One gene can generate products that are involved in multiple distinct processes/pathways. Examples of this are plentiful. I was wondering if someone with experties on the area can direct me to literature source where I can find

 

1. the first example of a single gene/protein with multiple function

 

2. How such phenomenon complicate how we use genetics to decipher function of a gene.

 

Thanks!!

 

Muchado

[Paralith]

This sounds like a homework question to me. If examples are so plentiful, I think you should be able to research this yourself. Here's a suggestion - even recent articles will usually begin with a paragraph or two of introductory background knowledge of the issue at hand, with references to earlier papers. I don't know if you'll be able to find THE FIRST known gene that effects multiple traits, (if there even is a single example - issues like these often are discovered via several examples, not just one) but it will point you in the right direction.

[muchado]

Oh, the examples are plentiful...like the Ku proteins that have role in DSB and telomere biology.

...But I was looking to read about the subject from a historical prospective....there is plenty of stuff available on Garrod's one gene one enzyme hypothesis but not how it evolved since then. The earliest solid evidence I can find in eukaryote is ilv1 gene which encodes thereonine deaminase (from 1974).

 

Anyways, thanks for your suggestion.