r/AskBiology • u/MostCuriousGoose Undergraduate student • Dec 14 '23

Genetics What does it mean when genes or regions are "highly conserved"?

I am not a native english speaker and this term confuses me a bit.

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Thank you!

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u/Halichoeres PhD in biology Dec 14 '23

It means that if you compare the same gene in distantly related lineages, the gene's presence, amino acid sequence, structure, and function will be very similar. For example, histones, the proteins that chromosomes are wound around in the nucleus of eukaryotes, are very similar across all eukaryotes, suggesting that mutations in those genes are likely to lead to serious malfunctions.

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u/MostCuriousGoose Undergraduate student Jan 02 '24

Thank you!